Out of the Blue
by Harmoniad
Summary: Tohru discovers that she has come into possession of a few mysterious, uncharacteristically violent, and possibly deadly abilites, much to the shock and bewilderment of her confidant, Kyo, and the rest of the Sohma clan. Pairings: Kyoru
1. In the Beginning

Disclaimer: Neither Fruits Basket or Buffy the Vampire Slayer are mine.

This story is a melding of Fruits Basket and BtVS albeit without Buffy…or for that matter any other characters in the show.

Chapter 1: In the Beginning.

Tohru stared hopelessly at the math problem Yuki had written on the paper in front of her.

"Sin² Ө + 6cos Ө 5. Find the value of theta. Yuki! This math is too hard!"

Yuki smiled reassuringly. "Miss Honda, its just elementary trigonometry. It may look hard, but all you have to do is subtract the five from both sides to change the equation into a quadratic. Then, plug in one, six, and negative five for values a, b, and c of the quadratic formula. Once you have those values, it should be relatively easy to solve for sine of theta."

Tohru's brow furrowed as she slowly worked out the equation. After a few minutes, she hesitated, her pen hovering over two numbers. "So… the answers are—"

Before she could verify the solution, Momiji barged into the house with a shriek of joy. "TOOOHRUUU!"

Kyo and Haru followed, more sedately.

"Hello, all of you! Dinner's still cooking, but it should be done soon," Tohru said, as cheerful as always.

"Good. I'm hungry," Kyo mumbled. He plopped down next to Tohru and peered at her work. "You forgot to change the problem into like terms. Right now, you're trying to solve for sine and cosine, but that's impossible."

Tohru's face turned bright red. "Oh! I can't believe I did something so stupid! I'll _never_ graduate, Yuki. _Never_."

"Yeah, yeah. And your mom will be disappointed, and you'll have to work as a janitor for the rest of your life, and Godzilla will destroy Tokyo again, and then the icecaps will melt and the ruins of Tokyo will be submerged in water, and—" Kyo was cut off by a pillow pressed into his face by Haru.

"Get this damn pillow off of me!" Kyo's muted voice bellowed.

"Don't feel bad, Tohru. Kyo is insensitive to everybody," Momiji said consolingly.

Kyo's hands reached out blindly for Momiji, as the pillow was still smothering him.

"Don't worry Miss Honda. I believe what Kyo was trying to say is that one mistake isn't important. We all make mistakes. They help you learn. Next time you'll remember to change the problem into like terms. Here, let's go over it again."

Tohru beamed and picked up her pencil determinedly. They turned back to the sheet of paper placed on the table, while Kyo screamed for breath, since Haru had yet to remove the pillow.

"Haru, you can stop now. I think Kyo has passed out."

…

"So, why did you and Haru come over to visit?" Tohru questioned Momiji as she stirred the leek soup. Kyo and Haru were in the next room playing a video game. She could hear Kyo from where she stood.

"What the hell do you mean Game Over! I beat you!"

"You were playing the wrong person, idiot." Yuki's voice drifted through to the kitchen.

"Rin" He said softly. Then he perked up and added, "And for the food!"

"Oh," Tohru responded. "Rin's upstairs talking with Shigure."

"Okay then! I'll watch Haru beat Kyo until dinner's ready! See ya!"

Momiji skipped out of the room and left Tohru by herself.

_That's weird, I feel hot all of a sudden. I hope I'm not coming down with something._

But the feeling passed very quickly and Tohru forgot about it as she resumed cooking.

_Now, where's that cooking knife? I'm sure it's around here somewhere._

She found it on a nearby counter and grabbed for it, reaching it far more quickly than she normally should have. As her hand wrapped around the hilt to pull it closer, she spotted a fly buzzing about near her head. Without thinking, Tohru buried the knife into the wall, ending the fly's life with a single thrust.

Tohru tugged the knife free, plaster billowing out in a cloud of dust, and stared at the hole.

"What the hell did you do to the wall?"

Tohru gasped and turned around. Kyo was eyeing the hole, obviously bewildered.

"I AM SO SORRY! I PROMISE I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN! PLEASE DON'T BE MAD AT ME! I'LL PAY FOR IT TO BE FIXED, I PROMISE!"

Kyo walked over to the hole and inspected it.

"Don't worry, it's nothing a little duct tape won't fix. But how did you manage to drive it in so far? That must have taken a lot of strength … is that a fly wing? You hit a _fly_ with a knife? It was either already dead or you were _really_ fast."

"I don't know what happened. I had the knife and I saw the fly and suddenly the knife was there and the fly wasn't."

Kyo walked over to some drawers. "Where do you keep the duct tape? It used to be in this drawer with everything else."

"Oh! I alphabetized all the drawers and their contents. It's in drawer D-F, over there, by the refrigerator."

Kyo muttered, "That's a little over the top"

"Why? I couldn't stand how cluttered everything was, so I cleaned the whole thing out."

"How did you hear me? Oh never mind, I'll get the tape."

Kyo looked at the drawer's contents. Everything was immaculate and sorted neatly into little bins with labels.

"When did you do this? It must have taken forever."

Tohru didn't answer. He found the duct tape in bin Dm- Dz, ripped off a piece, and covered the hole. "We'll find some wood filler later."

He turned around and saw Tohru standing there, still looking guilty.

"Don't worry about it! And I think the soup is burning."

Tohru hurried over to the soup and squealed, "Oh no!" She rushed to save what was left of dinner, the knife incident gone from her mind. Kyo watched her for a few seconds and turned to get the drink he had come in for, then returned to the living room, determined now to beat Haru at that damned video game.

She continued making dinner, a dim part in the back of her mind noting that she could _sense_ all the people in the house: Momiji, Yuki, Kyo, Rin, Haru, Shigure, and… _Hatori?_ She hadn't realized he was planning to visit that night, let alone that he had already arrived. They all felt like…animals. She was hearing, seeing, and smelling things she logically shouldn't.

···

Hatori had indeed come over for dinner. Dinner was simpler than usual because of the burnt food, but still as delicious as ever. Rin and Haru had gone upstairs to talk. Hatori hadn't said why he had come over, and Shigure couldn't help but tease Hatori of being a naughty old man infatuated with Tohru. Hatori had simply rolled his eyes in disgust and continued to eat.

After dinner was finished and the dishes cleaned, Hatori asked Tohru to come with him outside, away from eavesdroppers. A confused Tohru followed and they left with Shigure calling out locations where the wedding could take place, and hadn't stopped until Yuki and Kyo hit him.

"Tohru, I know this will sound crazy, but there's no way to say it except straight out. I've been informed that you have become one of many Slayers, girls imbued with the strength and skill to stop the powers of darkness. I am not a Watcher, but I will train you to slay vampires and their ilk."

"Eh?"

(End Chapter 1)


	2. Single Japanese Girl with Super Cool Pow...

Disclaimer: Neither Fruits Basket or Buffy the Vampire Slayer are mine.

Chapter 2: Single Japanese Girl with Super Cool Powers.

"Tohru, you should sit down for a moment." Hatori helped her lower herself and knelt beside her. "You've probably noticed all the strange things that have been happening to you lately. Kyo certainly has. He told me about the knife."

Tohru covered her face with her hands. "Slay? I couldn't slay anything! And what do you mean by powers of darkness? There's no such thing!"

"I know this is hard to accept, but you'll have to, to survive. I want you to carry these items with you, wherever you go."

He handed her a necklace with a cross on it, and a short piece of pointed wood.

"What are these for?" she asked as she took them. The piece of wood seemed almost to jump into her hand, and she hugged it to herself instinctively.

"You'll need to be able to defend yourself in case you run into vampires. Promise me you'll wear the cross at all times and keep the stake with you always. Keep it in your book bag, around your waist, wherever, but keep them with you at _all_ times."

"Bu-"

"_Promise_," Hatori cut in. "This is for your safety, and don't invite any people who 'feel' odd to you after sundown inside the house. If you do and they attack you, stake them in the heart. I'm sorry I can't help you more but I can't be with you everywhere and right now is no time to show you. I want you to come to the Main House after work tomorrow. Promise me."

"I… promise."

"Good. Don't go anywhere by yourself after sundown, and put the necklace on. I have to leave now, but first I have to discuss something with Kyo."

Tohru tugged the cross on over her head and Hatori started to leave, but then stopped and turned around.

"Don't tell anyone about this, not even your friends or Shigure, Yuki, and the rest, okay?"

Then he left.

…

Kyo was lying on his stomach on the floor, watching cartoons, when Hatori came in and turned off the TV.

"Hey! You can't—"

"I want you to train Tohru in the martial arts."

"What!"

"Come by the Main House tomorrow around nine and I'll explain everything. This is neither the time nor the place. I'll wait outside for you. Akito needn't know"

Hatori switched the TV back on and left.

Kyo just shook his head. "Hatori is so _weird_."

…

"Boy, Mom, work was hard, and then there's all this 'Slayer' stuff. I'm so confused. What am I going to do? I haven't told Uo or Hana, but I think they were suspicious that something was different."

Tohru was walking home from work. It was dark and she was tired, but when she noticed someone on the road ahead she stopped. She felt strange 'vibes' from the person.

"Excuse me, can I help you?" Tohru asked.

"So you're one of those 'newbie' Slayers. You don't look so tough. This will be an easy kill." The voice was decidedly female.

_What?_

As the woman walked closer, Tohru saw her in better light and gasped. The woman's features were distorted: her eyes were as yellow as a cat's, her ridged brow protruded, and she bared fanged teeth in a snarl. Then she charged with alarming speed.

Tohru would never be able to fully describe that first vampire kill if her life depended on it. It just happened too fast.

The stake that Hatori asked her to carry sprang into her hand, and she remembered spinning to dodge the vamp's punch and coming around to stake the vamp in the back. It was a lucky hit, and the vampire exploded into a cloud of dust.

"Wow…oh, wow." When she looked down at the pile of ashes she panicked, her stomach clenching as she tried not to vomit. There was no way that that could have happened. It had to be a trick of light. Yes, yes, the women never existed, she never _staked_ her. There was NO WAY THIS COULD BE REAL! Vampire Slayers…forces of darkness…demons…vampires…magic…no way they could exist.

Right?

_Right_?

Maybe…but there was no way _she_ could be a Slayer. There had to be a mistake. She could never kill anything. Sure, she had freaked out on the fly, and killed that vampire, but she couldn't do this. Kill demons and vampires and flies. It just wasn't her. Sure, they might be evil, but she was Tohru! Despite her doubts, she had felt an odd sense of well-being when she staked that vampire that this was _right_, and this was what she was meant to do. She had been feeling stronger, more confident. Maybe…just maybe…she _could_.

"Um, well I came to walk you home, but… what the hell just happened" Kyo stepped out from the shadows into the circle of light from the street lamp.

Tohru jumped. "I didn't know you were there!"

"So, I guess all that crap Hatori told me about vampires was true. Well, come on, Hatori wants us to meet him at some diner. It's nearby."

···

Hatori's car was parked outside the diner when Tohru and Kyo arrived. Inside, the place was still busy even though it was late. They found Hatori sitting in the back, away from any windows and nobody seemed to be paying any attention to him.

Hatori acknowledged their presence with a nod. "Tohru. Kyo. Sit down. I'll order some drinks if you want. I know I told you, Tohru, to come to the Main House but I decided that this would be a better place. No one will pay any attention to us here. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Kyo started before Tohru could even open her mouth, "What the hell is going on? I saw Tohru stab someone with a piece of wood, who then exploded into a pile of dust, and then there's you blabbing on about 'Slayers' and the 'powers of darkness'! I want some damn answers!"

Hatori turned to Tohru.

"You've already staked your first vampire and without any help from anyone? You are a very lucky Slayer. Well, Kyo, it's just like I told you, there are vampires and demons, and there is the Slayer, a girl who, until recently, stood alone against the forces of darkness gifted with immense strength and skill. Previously there was only one Slayer, but some American changed that and made anyone with the Potential become a Slayer so she could stop an Apocalypse."

"Okay, how do you know all of this?" Again, Kyo.

"Two Sohma family members were once attacked by a vampire, and they were saved by a Slayer who then brought them to me. I saved one from blood loss, but I didn't learn what the Slayer really was until later, when I stumbled upon a chat room and found some very interesting things about this world. I also made contact with the Watcher's Council and have been working with them for a while. The two who were attacked forgot about it, chalking it up to some nightmare they had. I didn't convince them otherwise. This was all a long time ago."

Tohru started to say something but Kyo beat her to it.

"So, who else knows about all this?"

"Just you and I."

Tohru tried to speak again, but Kyo asked another question before she could even open her mouth.

"So what's this got to do with me?"

"I want you to train Tohru in the martial arts, just like I told you. I don't know where Kazuma is currently, and I cannot teach her, and there are no trained Watchers available."

Tohru sighed and raised her hand.

"Yes, Tohru?"

"What if I don't want to do this? What if I can't?"

"You're going to have to. You're the only Slayer in this part of Japan. The vampires will sense that you are here and many will come, especially since you're new. They will kill and terrorize the streets and you are the only one who will be able to stop the slaughter. You won't stand idly by while people are in dire need, will you?"

Tohru lowered her head.

"No," she whispered. "But I can't do this alone."

"Kyo will help you, and I have a feeling that others will, too."

A waitress brought Kyo and Tohru their drinks, steam rising out of the mugs. Kyo dumped a few packets of sugar into his, stirred, and then asked, "Hatori, since when do _you_ go online?"

"I've been frequenting various message boards and chat rooms for years, now. They can be excellent sources for information, if you go to the right ones."

Tohru looked up from her mug. "What do you get if you go to the wrong ones?"

Kyo blushed, causing Tohru a great deal of concern, but she didn't press the matter any further.

Hatori brought the conversation back to the original topic. "Tohru, we can't always choose our destinies. I didn't want to be a doctor, but for the sake of my family, I followed in my father's footsteps. I didn't want to erase Kana's memories, either, but I had to. None of the Zodiac wanted to be cursed, but here we all are, unable to ever have a physical relationship outside of the jyuunishi."

"Unless you're Shigure," muttered Kyo as he stacked containers of jelly into a haphazardly constructed pyramid.

Hatori just looked at Kyo.

"Speaking of Shigure, you and Tohru are going to train at his house, after you finish work. I'll be there, too, to teach you more about vampires and so forth. I wish we could start now but it's getting late and you both should get on home to bed. I'll drive you. And Tohru? You might have strange dreams occasionally. Make sure to tell me when you do."

Hatori picked up his coat, which was on the chair next to him and stood up.

"What if you get attacked after you drop us off?" This was Kyo.

"Don't worry, vampires can't get into cars, and demons don't really bother. Just in case, however, I have some stakes and holy water."

They arrived home after everyone else was asleep, and Tohru 'felt' that both Rin and Haru were in the house, but in different rooms.

_Huh, that's strange._

Tohru said goodnight to Kyo and walked into her room to find that Rin was in a sleeping bag on the floor.

_I wonder why she's here; I'll have to ask her in the morning._ Tohru slipped under the pink comforter of her bed and was fast asleep.

(End Chapter 2)

Author Note: Chapter 2 done, chapter 3 coming soon. As an American, I have little knowledge of Japanese culture, so nearly everything in here is Americanized, unless it isn't. Also, for the sake of the story, Rin and Haru have moved into la casa de Tohru and company. The reason for this (besides my utter fangirliness) will probably become apparent within the next few chapters.


	3. Strange Dreams Come to Slayers

Disclaimer: I don't think any of you believe that I'm Natsuki Takaya.

I forgot to do this last chapter, but here. Thank you, Cerii-chan Kawaii and Cat-eyed Princess, for your generous reviews. If the vast web network didn't separate us, I would give each of you gigantic hugs, or maybe a dollar. Anyway, I appreciate you!

Chapter 3: Strange Dreams Come to Slayers

Tohru dreamed vividly that night, as Hatori had predicted she might, but the dream didn't seem to be prophetic. It consisted of Ayame prancing about his shop, outfitting the members of Yuki's fan club with various revealing costumes.

Tohru forced her eyes open._ That was a _bizarre _dream. _She groggily turned her head and saw that Rin was looking at her.

"Are you okay, Tohru? That looked liked a pretty nasty dream you were having."

"Oh no, I'm fine. It was a little creepy. That's all. I was going to ask you when I came home but… why haven't you gone home?"

"Shigure and Hatori want me to stay here for awhile, until things calm down at the Main House."

"Oh, of course!"

Tohru got up and started to get her school uniform, when she remembered sensing Haru's presence the night before. She turned around and saw Rin getting up, as well.

"Um, is Haru staying here, too, by any chance?"

"Yeah, in Yuki's room. What tipped you off?"

"Oh…uh… just a lucky guess! I'm going to go get dressed."

···

Breakfast was an unusually quiet affair. Tohru was still too busy absorbing the information, and so apparently was Kyo, since he wasn't fighting with Yuki.

Afterwards, the three, plus Haru, got their school items together and started heading for school. It, too, was a quiet walk. _I wonder how much more silence we can take before someone snaps,_ Tohru reflected. It was already starting to drive her a little mad, but she didn't really feel like talking.

Class 3-D was even more silent. Tohru knew instantly something was very wrong the moment she walked into class. Before school the class would _never_ be this quiet. They were all sitting silently in their seats. Tohru took her seat next to Uo and Hana.

"What's wrong?" She whispered.

Uo looked at her funny. "Didn't you hear? One of the second years was found dead this morning in the library! She'd been bled dry."

Kyo and Yuki both looked sharply at Uo, their hearing very good. Kyo appeared more startled then Yuki, though. Tohru's stomach knotted up and her throat tightened. A vampire had killed one of her schoolmates! She was already failing in her duties! Well, that wouldn't happen again. She was going to train hard and learn to fight. Then she could stop things like this from occurring.

"Who was it?" Tohru asked. She had to know.

"It was one of Yuki's fan club members." Hana's soft and emotionless voice spoke louder then Uo's whispering.

"Class, Listen up!" Their Sensei called out, "There has been an unfortunate accident in the Library and the police are looking into it. Everyone should be extremely careful here, and at home, until they figure out what's going on, but school's still in session so we're going to get right into things."

Tohru tuned out most of the things the teacher said. Luckily, she wasn't called on and no one tried to talk to her. Everyone was lost in there in own worlds thinking over what had happened. Who had done it? Would it happen again? And if it did, who would be next? The teacher didn't try to get their attention, seeing as what had happened.

What Hatori had said to her the other night came back: the vampires would be coming now, coming for her. It would be the innocent bystanders who would pay the price for Tohru being a Slayer.

In that moment Tohru decided that she would do this, to help those innocents. She would train and slay vampires and demons, and she would find the vampire who had killed that girl.

…

During a break in between classes, Tohru excused herself from Uo and Hana, telling them that she had to use the restroom. She walked away from them, towards the library.

When she got there some policemen and school staff were attempting to disperse a crowd. Tohru did not sense anyone in the Library, but knew she couldn't get in this way. She vaguely remembered the location of where the windows were outside and was thankful that it was an area few kids visited.

Once she was outside, she looked up at the windows and tried to remember which one it was. All of the blinds had been pulled to prevent bystanders from looking in on the crime scene. She knew that it was on this side of the building but there was no distinguishing feature beyond that.

_Oh well, eeny-meeny-minie-mo. _Tohru randomly picked one that looked about right and started looking for a way in.

"You do know which window the Library is, right, or are you just going to randomly pick one?" Kyo's voice came from behind her.

Tohru jumped about a foot. _Guess I didn't sense him._

"Kyo! What are you doing out here?"

"I figured you were going to try and get into the Library, and judging by the police the doors aren't an option, so here I am. Why do you even want to get in there? It must be pretty messy."

"I just feel like I have to check for something, like a clue, but I don't know which are the Library windows, or how to get in once I find them." she admitted.

"Well, the window part is easy. Those three over there, at the corner, are the library windows, and don't you have, like, super strength or something? Shouldn't you be able to pry 'em open?"

"I'll try, I guess."

She checked to make sure no one was watching before she yanked. It took Kyo's sharp eyes to realize that these windows were locked from the inside

"Just break it." Kyo told her.

"But it's school property! That would be vandalism!"

Kyo sighed and reached across to punch the window next to the latch. It seemed to Tohru that he had done this before, as he applied the perfect amount of force as to not punch in the entire window. He reached in and undid the latch. The window swung open.

"Ladies first."

Tohru jumped in and Kyo followed.

The Library was dark and seemed foreboding, but the body of the fan-girl was easy to find. She was sprawled next to the checkout desk and she had two nasty holes on the side of her neck like someone- or something- had bitten her.

"That's strange. It looks like she didn't run, or fight back, or… anything." Kyo commented as he observed the body. "I know her. She's the new Number Two in the Yuki Fan-Club. The old one moved away after Rika Aida got voted President of the Fan-Club. Everyone says there was bad blood between them."

Tohru remembered when Rika got voted in. It wasn't so much by vote as by force, seeing as the entire Fan- Club was scared of her. She also remembered when Mai, the old Number Two, had moved away. It had been the talk of the school, especially considering the circumstances.

Tohru moved next to Kyo, who was nudging the body with his foot.

"She's not completely drained, there's still some blood in her."

"I feel so sorry for her. She was too young to die. I should have been there, protecting her."

"**Don't be. I feel so much better now, Slayer." **It was the body.

It was all Tohru could do to keep from screaming her head off, especially when the girl- no _vampire_- opened her eyes and looked at Tohru.

"I'm going to drain you dr-" The vampire never finished her sentence as Tohru jammed the stake in her book bag into the vampire's heart.

Poof!

Kyo looked at her, "We could have tried to get some information from her, you know."

"Oh, I'm so stupid! First I couldn't save her, and then I mess it up so we don't get any information. I could've asked her who killed her! I am so STUPID!" Tohru looked close to tears.

"Well first off, you couldn't have saved the girl, no matter what. You had no idea what was happening, or even when. Second, it's all right we didn't get any information from her. She couldn't have known anything useful. And thirdly," Kyo grabbed Tohru's hand and pulled her back towards the open window, "I think it's time to get lost."

Kyo hauled Tohru towards the window and they both jumped out, just as the library's doors open and some people walked in.

"… and I want a report on-"

"Hey! The body's gone!"

"What?"

Kyo and Tohru had safely landed and were on their way back to their classrooms. News travels at light speed in a high school, so the school was already abuzz with the rumor of the body's mysterious disappearance.

"Hey, Tohru! We've been looking everywhere for you! Did ya hear? The body is gone! Just Poof! Gone!" Uo's excited voice came from behind Tohru.

Tohru turned and saw Uo and Hana standing behind her.

"The body is gone! Does anyone know what happened?" Tohru feigned surprise, and she didn't do a bad job of pulling it off.

"No, it was there one minute and gone the next. Just a pile of dust remained." That was Hana.

"How strange. Oh! We're going to be late, come on!" Tohru and Kyo rushed for their class, leaving a confused Uo and Hana.

"Huh, since when does Orangey want to go to class?"

"I have the feeling that something very strange is going on. Have you noticed? Tohru seems very different and her waves are, too. She seems…stronger, more confident."

…

"Now, Tohru, as the Slayer, you have an innate knack for any weapon you pick up, as well as hand-to-hand fighting. But that isn't enough to keep you alive. Kyo here will teach you the basics and more, and then we will move on to swords and crossbows." Hatori was lecturing Tohru out in the spacious backyard of Shigure's house. Kyo was standing around looking bored and sullen.

The rest of the residents of the house were out, something Hatori might have had a hand in.

"But, Hatori, where are we going to get swords and crossbows? Where would we put them!" Tohru looked a little worried about storage. It might have had to do with the fact she was the housekeeper.

Hatori coughed and muttered something that even with Slayer hearing, Tohru wasn't able to fully pick up. She heard the words '_business arrangement_' and '_Bracken_'. She didn't press.

Kyo, apparently, was getting annoyed with Hatori's lecturing. "Could we just get to the training?" he yelled. The cat ears and tail that he had when he was a little angry appeared and disappeared.

"Hm, yes, yes. Training. Let's see, where to begin…"

"Hatori, I thought _I_ was going to teach her."

"Oh, right. Sorry. Begin."

Kyo sighed, and turned his attention back to Tohru. He looked a bit lost in thought, before straightening, and clearing his throat. "Alright, now, let's begin with the basics. Copy my pose." He shifted into a beginner defense pose, able to quickly change into offense.

Tohru did so, perfectly. Kyo looked a little impressed. "Okay, now follow me as I begin a simple kata…"

Some time later, Kyo called a break. Tohru hadn't even broken a sweat. She had found the training rather simple. Her body had acted like it already knew it, and she found herself wanted to learn more, to _fight_. She wasn't sure if she liked that. Tohru wasn't a fighting creature by nature, and she found herself a little scared at how much she had seemed to change in a matter of a few days. She didn't really want to hurt things, but she knew she would have too, and deep, deep down, a part of her _wanted_ it.

Kyo broke thorough her reflections. "Hey, Tohru, I think you're good enough, and you seem to know everything, that we can go onto the more advanced training. But first I think I want to spar with you, to see how good you are in a fight. Training and fighting are two different things."

"O….o…okay." She stammered.

Hatori looked up in interest. Sometime during the training, he had found a book and a chair and proceeded to split his attentions. Right now, they were all on Kyo and Tohru.

"Yes, I do think that is a good idea. Kyo is good enough, and him being the cat will help make sure he isn't injured. Likewise, you being a Slayer will also protect you."

Kyo walked so he was standing about seven feet away from Tohru. He got into the offensive ready position, and after a moment of indecision, Tohru got into the defensive ready position.

"Ready?" Kyo asked. "I'm going to trust Hatori's opinion, and not hold backkk!" His last word was drawn out as he started attacking Tohru.

His first attack was a right punch to her stomach, designed to knock her down, and take the breath in her windpipe out. Tohru reacted without thought and brought her left hand up to bear as she blocked, also lashing out with her right leg in an attempt to hook around his legs and bring him down.

Kyo jumped and missed the leg attack, using his two hands to grab her left arm to twist and bring her to the ground. Tohru used her Slayer strength and broke the hold. They broke contact and backed up a few feet, looking for an opening.

Since Tohru was a very new Slayer with hardly any training against a boy who trained in martial arts since he was very small and was the cursed cat of the Zodiac, the two were relatively matched.

As Kyo came in for a roundhouse kick, two things happened: 1.) Tohru's old pre-Slayer self came crashing back and she 'eeped' and dropped her defensive pose to bring her arms up to shield herself, and 2.) Kyo suddenly found himself thrown back about twenty feet. Tohru looked up in confusion.

"Would you please tell me _why_ you are attacking Miss Honda?" Yuki's voice was very, very quiet and soft, and _very_ angry.

(End Chapter 3)

AN: Oh, Yuki, you sly rat, sneaking up on people like a sneaking thing. The story picks up from here, with the arrival of a few familiar characters, some snappy dialogue, more violence of an entertaining nature, and romance. Excited much?


	4. Standing On Graves Can Be Dangerous

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Cookies (the chewy, sugary, diabetes-inducing ones—not cybertype) go out to all of my wonderful new reviewers: Dark Inu Fan, Firetwins, Vixen, and Lunar Kitty. This chapter introduces something that ever story needs—the plot!

Chapter 4: Standing on Graves Can Be Dangerous

"Yuki! Don't be mad at Kyo, please!" Tohru sprinted to Kyo, who was slowly sitting up, rubbing the back of his head.

"How can you protect him, Miss Honda? He was trying to kill you!"

Hatori looked up from his book. "Welcome home, Yuki. Would you like me to make you some tea?"

Yuki's eyes widened in disbelief. "Ha—Hatori?" He stammered. "What are you— you're _allowing_ this?"

"Perhaps I should make tea for all of us," Hatori suggested. "Bring Kyo inside, Tohru. We need to have a talk with Yuki."

Yuki was so stunned as he followed Hatori through the paper door that he failed to notice Tohru heave Kyo to his feet and practically carry him into the house.

…

Yuki was still seething as he drank his tea. "You're lying," he said simply.

"What's so unbelievable, you damn rat? After what happened to that girl this morning, Tohru needs to learn how to protect herself!"

"You weren't teaching her how to 'protect herself'! And what does Hatori know about fighting?" He rounded on Hatori. "Why are you even here?"

"I was moderating the fight."

" 'The fight'?" he repeated incredulously. "So you admit that they were fighting! Good God, Kyo, a single one of your punches could have broken Miss Honda in half! How can you 'fight' with her when she doesn't know a thing about hand-to-hand combat?"

Tohru spoke up for the first time since they had sat down at the table. "I know a few things. Kyo has been teaching me since we came home from school."

"That was only two hours ago! You couldn't _possibly_ have learned enough to take Kyo on in a real fight."

The group was silent for a moment before Hatori rose, left the room, and returned shortly with one of Tohru's cooking knives. He handed it to Tohru.

"I want you to throw the knife at the wall," Hatori explained as she stared quizzically at him. "As hard as you can."

Tohru hesitantly drew back her hand the flung the knife, which spun through the air before embedding itself up to the hilt in the plaster of the wall opposite her, eliciting a gape from Yuki, but no words.

Hatori waited another moment before he said, "Yuki, go pull the knife out." Yuki stood and grasped the hilt, but, despite his greatest efforts, could not pry it free.

"How is that possible?" he demanded, once he had strained himself into a sweat.

"Well, you see, Tohru has…become something special."

"What?"

"She's…a Slayer. Warrior of the Light."

"_Slayer?"_

"Vampire Slayer. Destined to fight the forces of darkness. The vampires and demons."

"Do you _really_ think I'll believe something…_that insane_?" The last words were hissed.

"And there's no such thing as curses. Kyo didn't believe me either, until he saw Tohru stake a vampire."

Yuki looked utterly unbelieving. By the look of things, Kyo had grown tired of it.

"Damn it, rat! Hatori's telling the truth! I saw her throw a knife at a _fly_ and kill it from eight feet away. I saw a vampire go up in dust! He's telling the truth. And Tohru would've beaten me if we had gone any longer. She's a natural fighter!" During Kyo's creschendoing speech, he had stood up, and though they were at the same heights, he towered over Yuki.

The rat still looked unbelieving. "It's impossible." He said flatly. "I don't know how Tohru was able to throw the knife with such force, but there's no thing as demons and vampires."

"Yuki…they're telling the truth." Tohru's quiet words were strangely loud

"Miss Honda, how can you really believe what they're saying?"

"Because it's true. Do you want more proof?" Her words were still quiet.

"How?"

Tohru was about to answer, but Shigure's voice floated through the house, "Hatori, what are you doing with those kids? You're supposed to be out back, and I don't see you!"

"We're in here, Shigure," Hatori called, and then added, "In the dining room."

When he entered the room, Shigure immediately noticed the knife implanted in his wall. "What have you done, Kyo?" he asked, his voice dripping with mock anguish.

"Why—" Kyo started angrily, then, after seeing Hatori's pointed glare, mumbled an apology.

Shigure sighed heavily. "Not only are you back to destroying my house, but you're doing it with Tohru's knives! How is she going to make dinner for us if you stick all of her cooking utensils into my walls?" He paused. "What _are_ we having for dinner?"

"I haven't decided yet," Tohru answered. "Are you hungry? I can go make something right now, if you like."

"I can wait a bit. I want to hear what you've all been up to, first." Shigure waited, but no one volunteered an answer. "Keep your secrets, then. I'm going up to my office. Call me when dinner's ready."

As soon as Shigure had left, the conversation resumed. "How? How are you going to prove it?" Yuki challenged again.

"I…I…could pick up something really heavy. That I could only pick up with Slayer strength."

"And what would that be?"

Tohru was lost in thought for a bit. Then she brightened as an idea came to her. "Hatori's car!"

"What? No!" Hatori had been listening to the conversation with a detached interest, but now he was all ears, and not happy. "Please, something else."

"Err…Hatori, you seem to like that car a bit much." Kyo ventured.

"Because…" The rest of the sentence was muttered under his breath, and strangely, he blushed.

_Something to do with Kana?_ Tohru wondered distractedly. She wanted to prove to Yuki she was a Slayer, but nothing came to mind. Then it hit her. She was a Slayer, wasn't she? Well, then, she could slay something.

"Then we can go out to the cemetery, and I can slay a vampire!" she said cheerfully.

…

"I still don't understand why we have to do this." Kyo muttered, leaning against a headstone in Greenstone Cemetery the closest graveyard to the house.

Tohru, Kyo, Hatori, and, of course, Yuki were standing around, at various graves. They had left Shigure's once it had gotten dark, after dinner.

Yuki still looked skeptical, and was talking about studying math. He seemed very bored.

"Because Yuki needs to know. Now hush and wait. The man buried in the grave under you is supposed to rise soon. Are you sure about this Tohru? I not sure you have enough training." Hatori answered. Kyo moved off the grave.

"But Yuki and Kyo can help." Tohru looked as clueless as she always did, but underneath she was really scared, and glad Kyo and Yuki were with her. The first vampire had been a lucky hit, and the second was an instant reaction. This would be her first real fight.

They waited for a while longer, Yuki getting increasingly impatient.

"If nothing happens soon I'm going home."

"Just wait, Yuki! Please, we're telling the truth."

They waited for another 20 minutes.

"This is ridiculous. I'm going home." With that, Yuki started to leave.

"Wait! Yuki! Please!" Tohru begged to his retreating form.

"Let the damn rat go. If he doesn't want to believe us that his problem."

"But…"

"I agree with Kyo. If he doesn't want to believe than there's nothing we can do. The less people who know the better." Hatori told Tohru.

"Okay," Tohru hesitantly agreed.

Just as Yuki disappeared from sight a hand burst from the grave Kyo had previously been standing on. Tohru gasped and got a stake ready.

"That just figures." Kyo muttered under his breath.

"It would probably be best to stake it before it frees itself completely. It saves you a fight and gives you more time to complete a sweep," Hatori advised Tohru.

Tohru nodded and waited for the vampire to dig itself out a little more. When she saw the heart exposed she reached in to stake it but she was too slow and the vampire was ready for her. He grabbed Tohru then flipped her over the headstone, which was an impressive feat, considering that most of him was still beneath the ground.

The vampire freed the rest of his body, picked the dazed Tohru off the ground at an amazing speed, and was about to bite into her jugular when a stake seemed to sprout from him and he dusted. Hatori grabbed Tohru before she hit the ground and Kyo stood behind where the now completely dead vampire had been, a stake in his hand.

"Thank you, Kyo. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Well, never underestimate your opponent's strength or speed. Next time you'll do better," Hatori assured Tohru.

"But I did so bad! I shouldn't have let him grab me. I don't think I'm cut out to do this."

"Nonsense. Every Slayer has mishaps the first time they do serious Slaying. Slayers are meant to protect the weak, and they put others before themselves, which is part of your nature to begin with. I think you'll be a great Slayer."

"Thanks Hatori." Tohru brushed some of the vampire dust off of the front of her shirt. "What do we do now?"

"Let's go slay some more vampires! They're great practice. I'm going to get so good I'll finally beat that damn Yuki!"

…

Several vampires and an hour later they once again stood outside Shigure's house.

"I hope Yuki got home okay." Tohru had been worried about Yuki since he had stormed off earlier.

"Don't worry about it, Tohru. Yuki can take care of himself."

"Unfortunately," Kyo muttered.

"I have to get back to the Main House. We'll return to the cemetery again tomorrow after training and start working out sweeps. Goodnight Tohru, Kyo. I'll see you tomorrow."

Hatori got into his car and drove away. Tohru and Kyo entered the house and saw Haru sprawled on the floor playing a video game, furiously punching the buttons of his controller.

"So, where have you guys been? It's pretty late."

"You should be in bed, Haru," Tohru said, avoiding his question. "Is Yuki home yet?"

"No, I thought he was with you guys."

That's not good; I really hope he's all right. Maybe he just forgot something he had to do or get. But it's too late to go find him, and we wouldn't even know where to look. Please be okay, Yuki.

"Well, I guess it's too late to do anything right now," Tohru answered. "I hope he returns later. Come on, Kyo. Lets go to bed."

Kyo and Tohru rushed off to their rooms, leaving a confused Haru.

"Wait! You didn't tell me where you were!"

…

Morning came and still there was no Yuki, forcing them to leave for school without him.

Maybe he left because he didn't want to talk to us, because of the Slayer thing. Oh, I hope not.

When they arrived at school the classes were slightly noisier, but yesterday was still fresh in their minds, if the conversations taking place were any indication. Most of the fragments Tohru heard as she made her way over to Hana and Uo concerned the mysterious disappearance of the corpse from the day before.

"Hey, Tohru!" Uo's eyes narrowed as she noted their missing companion. "Where's Yuki? He's never missed a day of school before!"

"Oh, um… he's really sick today."

"That must be one nasty sickness to keep him from school." Uo turned her attention back to the homework she was trying to complete before school started.

"What are you doing?" Tohru asked Hana, who had newspaper clippings in front of her with a black marker pen on top of them.

Hana turned her head towards Tohru. "Strange things are happening, abnormal things, and I will get to the bottom of it."

"Eh, what do you mean, strange?" Tohru shuffled through the clippings and noted that all of them were obituaries. She recognized a few of the pictures included with the text—they were of vampires she had staked the night before.

"People disappearing and turning up dead with bite marks on their necks. It's been happening for a while, but they were rare occurrences. Two days ago they started happening at an increased rate, and I believe it will continue to get worse." Hana took the clippings back from Tohru just as the teacher walked in.

"All right class, the police still don't know where the body is, but they will find it, and the culprit will face severe punishment, expulsion being only half of it. But, I'll let you deal with it, so let's get this show on the road."

After roll was called, and they had finished math, Tohru faced the realization, with deadly certainty and a sinking stomach, that Yuki was gone, and wherever he had gone to, he was not okay.

(End Chapter 4)

Chapter 5 is next (unless I decide to skip it completely and go on to 6)! Sarcasm aside, there's not much to say. I sincerely hope that all readers are prepared for the next chapter, for it shall introduce my favorite FB character of all time.


	5. S' is for Slayer

Disclaimer: I'm sure you guys know that FB or BtVS isn't mine.

Sorry it took longer to update, but I had this chapter all ready and I couldn't get to the log-in screen, it kept saying it was a bad request, but I could go anywhere else on Fanfiction.

Chapter Five: 'S' is for Slayer

Motoko Minagawa had a simple routine everyday. Get up, dress, eat, go to school, go back to the dorm room, do her homework, worship Yuki, and research the forces of evil.

She hadn't known anything about them until Mai had come to her and told her what _they_ were doing.

Mai's voice broke through her thoughts. "Motoko, Motoko, you won't believe what I have to tell you!"

Mai --Motoko didn't address her as Number 2 anymore, since they were no longer officially part of the Yuki Fan Club-- was wearing her frog hat.

She had started living in Motoko's dorm room since she dropped out of school at the beginning of her third year, received her GED, and went to the university with Motoko. She had done this because Rika Aida had become the president, after intentionally failing _her_ third year in order to repeat it.

Rika's ideas of protecting Yuki clashed violently with Mai's and Motoko's. Thus, Mai left. She had been extremely creeped out by what Rika had suggested they do to better serve Prince Yuki.

"Yes, Mai?" She stood up from her bed, accidentally knocking over the few demonology books she had. She had found them in the oddest places, and when she really thought about, wasn't it kind of… _obvious_ that supernatural creatures existed? Anything else she needed to know, she found on the Internet. She prided herself on her Internet surfing skills. Motoko stopped that train of thought and went back to focusing on Mai. She sensed her urgency. Something bad had happened.

"They did it. They turned themselves. And they have Yuki!"

_No. It cannot be so_, she thought, feeling faint.

She never thought they would do this. Go this far, after everything she had told them! After hearing what Mai's first report months ago, she had gone back, to tell them that it wouldn't work, that it wouldn't protect Yuki. They hadn't listened, and now, Yuki was in their grasp. She did not want to think of what they were scheming to do with him.

There was only one course of action.

She had hoped that she would never have to do this, but for Yuki…she would destroy the world. Just not the one she lived in, of course. She wasn't _that_ obsessed. An alternate universe would be where she drew the line.

"Then we have no choice. We must contact a Slayer, and hope she can save him."

…

"But where could he be?" Tohru frantically asked. She had been repeating that for the past few hours, after they had gotten back from school. Hì¥Á3M 33ð¿3333333333333ﾏB33

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3_tupid_. He may be hurt now, because of that. Because of _me_!" Tohru was really working herself into a state. Who knew she could take her responsibilities so seriously? But then again, consider her housekeeping job.

"Who may be hurt?" Rin's voice came through as she floated into the room.

_Oh no_. _What do I say?_

Tohru was saved from answering by Kyo.

"That damn rat went and got himself lost and he might be hurt. Huh, I bet he'll be easier to beat now."

"Kyo, that's not nice. Yuki could be seriously hurt right now!" Tohru reprimanded.

"Yuki's lost? Okay, well, I'll see what I can do. It's not like I haven't had to go off looking for Haru before. Yuki will be a lot easier to find, I bet." Rin went off to do whatever she does.

"Well, Hatori, don't you have, like, underground contacts or something?" Kyo asked.

Hatori took a sip of coffee. "Why do you ask, Kyo? Do you want to find Yuki?"

"Only because I can't beat that damn rat if he's dead!"

"Well, I do have some contacts, but it might be hard to find something for awhile. I'll get on it after training."

"We have to do something right away! Every second could mean the difference between life and death! Please, Hatori!"

Hatori thought for a minute and sighed. "Very well. Kyo, start training Tohru. I believe she's finished her homework." Tohru nodded emphatically. "Stop when it's time for her to go to work, and escort her home afterwards."

Hatori got up and left the room. Kyo looked at Tohru.

"Come on, let's get going. Hatori found some crossbows, so that should be fun."

…

Hatori couldn't believe the possibility of his cousin being injured or dead, and probably kidnapped at the very least. He was the rat! In most situations, Yuki could have taken care of himself, and since he wasn't anywhere to be seen, that suggested the supernatural had a hand in this. If only Yuki had believed them! Or stayed a minute longer.

He sighed, and continued driving the car that he and Kana had bought together. What great memories. Some of the only ones he could look back on without regret, grief, or guilt.

There would be only one contact he could talk to that would have any good info. All others were unreachable for the time being.

He pulled into the parking lot of the _Kamyia_, a demon bar. The demons in there would be able to sense the vengeful dragon spirit in him, and thus would leave him alone. _Good_.

Walking in he had to take a minute to adjust to the difference in light. Most demons had no need for light, so if the owners could save some money on something…

The only light came from the bar, where the human bartender was. _Why were they always human?_ He wondered distractedly. He walked up and sat down. "O'Doul." He ordered. The bartender nodded, and went to get the non-alcoholic drink.

Hatori looked around, and noticed that he wasn't the only human in the quiet bar. A young woman sat five seats down from him. She looked like she was a university student.

By then the bartender had come back with his drink. Hatori took it and nodded his thanks. "Is Dar'en here?" He asked. At this the women looked up at him, a little startled.

The bartender nodded. "Do you want me to get him?"

Before Hatori could answer the girl interrupted.

"Are you looking for him?" the girl asked. "So am I."

Hatori turned to the bartender. "Not just yet." The Bartender shrugged and went to some other customers. Hatori then looked at the girl. "Really? May I ask why?"

"I'm looking for a Slayer, preferably living somewhere around here."

"I see. Why do you need a Slayer?" Hatori was a little surprised.

"I need help finding and rescuing someone, and a Slayer is the only one with the power to do it. Why are you here?"

"I also need to find someone, who was possibly kidnapped by vampires or demons. At least I hope he was kidnapped. I don't want to think of the alternatives."

"Maybe we could help each other. If you can help me locate a Slayer, I'll share some good sources with you, who are just as good at finding people as Dar'en, but a lot cheaper."

"Sounds good." He held out his hand. "Hatori Sohma."

Motoko took his hand. "Motoko Minagawa. Sohma, huh?" She murmured the last part, "Who are you looking for?"

"My cousin, Yuki Sohma."

"Yuki? That's who I'm looking for! What a strange coincidence."

"But, how…how did you know he was gone? It hasn't even been 24 hours!"

"Let's just say I used to be the Yuki-Fan Club President and have some good sources concerning him."

_What, is she stalking him or something?_

"Well, I can get you a Slayer, but you have to help me find Yuki."

"Really? I know who kidnapped him, but I don't know where they took him."

"Who took Yuki?"

"Some of Yuki's fan-club girls, namely the current President Rika Aida, her Number One, and a couple other important members. They learned of vampires and such, and decided that to protect him better they had to become undead. Now they have kidnapped him. I tried to tell them not to, but they wouldn't listen to me. Now, where's that Slayer?"

_Girls sure can get _obsessed, _can't they? Poor, poor Yuki._

"She's Tohru Honda," From Matoko's shocked expression he assumed that they were acquainted. "I take it that you know her?"

"Indeed, I do. Slayer, you say? Who knew she had it in her?"

"Seems that's everyone's opinion."

"Well, she'd better use it to her advantage. The less people who know what she is, or even suspect, the better. But Tohru Honda? Hmm…once I left high school, I started reevaluating my opinion of her. She'll be a great Slayer. And _perfect_ for the job."

"What do you mean?"

"She lives with Yuki, thus knows him. This brings up a double point. 1.) She will be much more motivated to rescue him from the clutches of evil and 2.) The Fan-vamps hate her since she lives with said Yuki. Doubled with their soul-less state, they'll let their hatred get in the way of logical thinking, and eventually make a mistake. They aren't very bright to begin with, you see. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Good. So, when can we meet Tohru?"

"We?"

"Me and Mai. She was the old Number 2, and the reason I learned about demons. She's my best source of information, right before my message board. Then I have my demon contacts."

"Message board?"

"Yeah, the _Cross and Stake_. Really good, actually."

Something clicked in Hatori's mind. _No way._ "Is your board name YukiGirl?" He questioned tentatively.

Motoko looked surprised, then smiled. "Yes. Who are you?"

_Apparently, yes way_. "DragonDoc666."

"_REALLY?" _She squealed. "That's SO cool." Then she appeared to reconsider her outburst, and blushed. "Sorry, but I never thought I'll actually meet one of the board members in the flesh."

"That's okay. I always liked your messages. I never found anything wrong with them, but they always struck me as being rather like essays."

"Yeah, looks like college has really influenced my writing. So when can we go?"

"Well, I wanted to talk to Dar'en, but I think I've got all the information I'm going to need today."

"Yeah, but we are going to have to wait for Mai—"

The rest of her sentence was cut off by a yelling match between two patrons of the bar. One was human, and the other a vampire.

The human, a woman who was facing him, had bright, cheerful brown eyes and shoulder-length black curly hair upon which rested…a green frog hat.

The vampire was obviously not Japanese.

"Well, then just tell me what I want to know! It's not that difficult."

Motoko sighed. "While Mai might be a _great_ source for information, once she gets annoyed, then she doesn't do to well. Looks like we might have to step in before she gets killed."

She stood up, and drew a stake from inside her jacket. Hatori caught a glimpse of a sheathed dagger.

She walked up to the fighting pair, and right before the vampire was about to grab the girl— Mai— and drain her dry, Motoko staked him.

"Mai, you really need to learn some survival skills."

"Sorry," Mai murmured.

"Let's go, I got a lead on a Slayer." She motioned Hatori and Mai to follow her out, while glaring daggers at the patrons still looking at them.

Once outside, she asked if he had a car.

…

"Tohru, I know you're upset about Yuki, but you really need to concentrate! If you want to rescue him, you have to learn how to fight."

Right after Hatori left to meet his contact, Kyo and Tohru went out to Shigure's backyard, out of view of the house, to try training.

"Try" being the key word.

Tohru was barely able to concentrate, and refused to allow herself a moment's respite from her suffering. Regardless of her distress, however, she acknowledged that Kyo was correct. "Okay. Fight."

"Good." Kyo handed her a crossbow. "I've never used one of these before, but I think they work like this—" His explanation was cut short when the bolt he had been loading launched towards Tohru. She snatched it out of the air before it struck her in the chest.

"Nice catch," Kyo said after a brief silence. "I guess I accidentally pulled the trigger. Sorry." He blushed and handed the crossbow to Tohru. "Maybe you'll have better luck."

Tohru held the crossbow gingerly.

"Um…you know, I think it would be better if we did martial arts training and left this until Hatori gets back."

Kyo looked relieved and nodded his consent, but before they could put the crossbow away Shigure poked his head out from inside the house.

"So that's where you are! I can't seem to find anyone in this house… is that a crossbow? Those things are dangerous if you don't know how to use them, you know." He paused, a smile slowly breaking across his face. "I'll teach you! This will be so much fun. Schools just don't teach the important stuff anymore."

Tohru and Kyo merely stared at him as he approached them and retrieved the crossbow from Tohru, loaded it, and in one fluid motion raised it and fired it at a tree 30 feet away, hitting the bull's eye of the target Hatori had mounted on it earlier that day.

Kyo blinked. "How the hell does he know how to use a crossbow?"

Tohru looked surprised for a moment before smiling brilliantly. "That was amazing, Shigure! When did you learn to use one?"

Shigure looked sheepish. "Oh, not important! Now, which one of you is going to be my eager young pupil?"

Kyo jumped in before Tohru could speak. "Me, but don't start thinking that it's because I want to kill Yuki from a distance or anything. Why would you think _Tohru_ wants to use one of these? She just came out to remind me to do my homework."

Shigure looked at Tohru, who, upon receiving Kyo's pointed glare, nodded in agreement. "Now that I've reminded him, I'll go back inside. Have fun, you two!"

Tohru retreated inside the house, but stayed by one of the windows, so that she could observe without being seen. Shigure began giving Kyo lessons.

After twenty educational minutes, Tohru became aware that Hatori was approaching the house, and that if she didn't hurry she was going to be late for work. To compound her problems, she realized that she hadn't started dinner yet, either.

_OOOOOOHHHHHHHH NNNNNNNOOOOOOOO!_

Tohru rushed around the house with superhuman speed, getting ready for work and shoving some sort of meat into the oven. She had shouted her good-byes to Shigure and Kyo and was out the door as Hatori's car pulled to a stop in front of the house. Hatori and two other people Tohru thought she would never see again stepped out to join him.

"Hatori! What's happening? Why are Mai and Motoko with you?" It occurred to Tohru that she was rambling, so she stopped herself and said, "Oh, I'd love to talk, but I have to get to work. I might get fired if I'm late again!"

"Don't worry, Tohru. Get in the car. I'll drive you." Hatori turned to the two people standing behind him, "Get back in. We'll discuss things on the way." He glanced around, frowning. "Where's Kyo?"

"He's in the backyard. Shigure's teaching him to use a crossbow, so I'm assuming he'll show me how to use it later." Tohru ran to the car and got in.

Hatori's lips twitched, and as he walked towards the backyard he called over his shoulder, "I'd forgotten Shigure could use a crossbow. I'll go borrow his student, then."

A few minutes later they were all crammed into the car and driving towards Tohru's location of employment.

(End Chapter 5)

Once again, thank you to all my wonderful reviewers. You people make the sun rise in the west and set in the east!

References: The _Cross and Stake_ is actually the name of one of my favorite BtVS sites. I haven't been there in quite a while, so for all I know it's disappeared into the annals of the internet, but it was pretty nifty back in the day. In the year 2001, I used it exclusively for Season 6 spoilerage.

Motoko doesn't really know any fighting skills other than the simple staking and using the dagger to look intimating. Her part is more of the resident researcher than frontline fighting, but I love her character too much _not_ to include her in the story.

And Mai is a character from the anime (Who shows up in, like, one episode, but I thought she was perfect for this), so no OC.


	6. Safety First

Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't sue.

Chapter 6: Safety First

Once everyone had found their seats (Kyo in the front to avoid accidental hugging), Hatori switched on the child locks.

Kyo was outraged. "What'd you do that for? Are you afraid we're gonna open the doors while we're driving, fall out, and get creamed by oncoming traffic?" He attempted to turn off the lock, but Hatori swatted his hand away at every attempt until Kyo crossed his arms and sat back, sulking.

"Safety first, Kyo. Accidents happen."

It was not a quiet drive. Questions and answers were being asked and answered at breakneck speeds with increasing volume as everyone tried to be heard.

Finally, Hatori, unable to concentrate on driving and answer questions at the same time, and incapable of being heard in the mad-house that was once his car, decided to resort to drastic measures to get control and sanity back.

He "accidentally" swerved his car into the other lane and back, a hair's-breadth from causing a nasty accident.

Everyone shut up fairly quickly, and as they tried to get their breath back from the near death experience Hatori started talking.

"Now that everyone's calmed down we are going to try to do this in an orderly fashion. No one is going to interrupt anyone else while they're speaking, and everyone will get a chance to speak, understand?" Everyone nodded dumbly. "Good. Tohru, you go first. What do you want to know?"

"Um…well, why would the fan-girls kidnap Yuki? And what will they do to him?"

Motoko nodded to Mai, who turned to Tohru to speak.

"The fan-vamps, which is what they are now, have decided that to better protect the glorious Yuki they had to turn themselves. I'm guessing that now that they don't have souls they've decided to kidnap him, probably to turn him in order to preserve his unmatched splendor forever."

Tohru heard Kyo mutter, "Great, now I'll never beat that damn rat." Then he spoke up, "How did they find out about vampires?"

Motoko answered this time. "We're not quite sure, but we know that it was Rika Aida that discovered them. We would have to ask her if we wanted specifics. Oh, Tohru, Kyo, if you see any of the fan-vamps don't stake them; bring them to the house so we can extract the location of their fiendish lair. They're so dumb that it won't take much effort to trick them into telling us."

The car pulled to a stop. Everyone looked at Hatori in surprise and saw that they had arrived at the Sohma's office building; Hatori opened his door and turned off the child locks in the back seats. "Everyone out."

"Why?" Kyo asked as everyone else got out.

"Because we can talk while Tohru works. Momiji won't mind and will make sure we won't get in trouble. Plus, there's a weapons dealer in the building."

Tohru piped up as Kyo grudgingly opened his car door, "Really? Who is it?"

"That secretary on the tenth floor, right in front of the elevator. I always thought that was a rather silly place to set up shop. It gives you no chance to run if something bad comes your way."

"_Really?_ I know him. He's really nice."

They all walked into the office building with Kyo grumbling all the way.

…

"So, this is where you work? Not bad… Hey, are those vending machines working right now?" Motoko looked at the tall, glowing boxes at the end of the hall.

Tohru spared them a glance. "Um…I think so. I've never tried them before. Why don't you go and see?"

Motoko rushed off, saying something about the superb qualities of junk food.

Hatori had taken the elevator up another floor to see the weapons dealer.

Kyo was still complaining (Tohru had overheard him muttering, "That damn rat's more trouble than he's worth, stupid, getting himself kidnapped like that, he probably helped them capture himself because he wouldn't want them to go to too much trouble.")

Mai was happily waltzing around the empty office building.

Tohru's co-workers had both called in sick. Hatori and the others had been suspicious, but Tohru assured them that it was probably just one of the many seasonal bugs that were currently circulating the building. Kyo watched as Tohru attempted to clean the place by herself and decided to help.

Motoko returned bearing an armload of various types of victuals and couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Kyo attempting to scrub the floor and Mai twirling about with a broom. "I have food if anyone's interested."

…

Hatori came down from the tenth floor some time later, his arms laden with a variety of swords, axes, and other implements of doom.

Motoko looked incredulously at his acquisitions. "How does someone keep those kinds of weapons in an office building? How does one _hide_ those weapons?" she inquired, after swallowing the food in her mouth.

Tohru had used her Slayer abilities as well as her housekeeping skills, and had finished her duties in record time. The four teens were sitting around and munching on Motoko's purchases.

"Spells, of course. Tohru, could you help me bring these to the car?"

"Of course!" She got up and took the weapons from Hatori's arms, carrying them as if they weighed nothing, which, to her, they probably did.

The two disappeared through the doors, leaving the remaining people looking hungrily at the pile of food Tohru had left, completely unguarded…

"Still, though," Kyo said, "who sets up a _weapon shop_ in a _office_ building? It doesn't make any logical sense."

"Exactly, Kyo." Motoko sneaked a bar of chocolate from Tohru's pile.

"What does _that_ mean?"

"Who would think to look here for any illegal weapon dealing?"

"_Illegal?" _Kyo spat out the animal cracker, a hippopotamus, he had been chewing.

"Of course. Who has legal weapon dealings in these days and times?"

"Hatori…illegal…Hatori…weapons…" Kyo shook his head.

"It's not that bad," Mai added. "We all do _something_ illegal in our life. At least he's doing something that will benefit the brilliant Yuki."

At that, Kyo stood up, candy wrappers falling out of his lap and floating the floor. "Then Hatori has to stop!"

"Stop what?" Hatori asked from the door.

"Uh…nothing." He sat down and started looking thorough the animal cracker box for some more hippos.

"Well, I think we can go now!" Tohru said cheerfully. She started heading out, when suddenly she spun.

"What?" Hatori asked.

"I just thought I sensed something…must have been wrong." She chuckled nervously.

"What did you think you sensed?"

"Something demonic. But what are the chances of something demonic being here?"

Hatori looked at her. "Pretty high, actually. This _is_ a Sohma building." He thought for a moment. "Well, where do you sense it?"

Tohru stood still for a moment, trying to lock onto the demonic aura that she had sensed… "There."

"Where?"

"On the 3rd floor."

"Okay…but we don't have enough time to check it out, if we want to go patrolling. We can do it tomorrow, if time permits."

Tohru agreed.

…

Besides three vamps and a hellhound, which was easily dispatched with a stake, the patrol had been uneventful.

Tohru looked like she was considering going home, when suddenly she thought she heard something…that sounded strangely similar to the "poofs" and cries of agony they had listened to every time they went patrolling.

"Uh…Kyo, did you hear something, like a vampire being staked?"

"No, Tohru. It must be your imagination."

"Okay…" She didn't look convinced though. Then she heard it again. "Don't tell me you didn't hear it that time!" She cried, before rushing off after the sound.

"Wait!" The other four followed her and witnessed a sight they thought they would never see.

Haru calmly staked a vamp that was rushing toward him. After glancing at the ground, they saw evidence of other vampires who had met the same fate at Haru's stake.

"HARU?" they cried as one, with the exception of Motoko and Mai. "What are you doing here?" they continued.

"Oh…hey," he said causally.

"Haru…why are you staking vampires?" Hatori asked.

"Helps keep my rage down. I don't go Black as often."

"So…you're a rouge demon hunter?"

"Yeah."

"That's so cool. I'm the Slayer!" Tohru said excitedly.

"Really? That's great! More slaying!"

The others just looked at the two of them.

"That explains the cross necklace," Kyo muttered.

…

"Uuccchhh!" Motoko grimaced in disgust. She had thought she'd gotten used to demons and their nasty habits, but some of the things she was reading were just _sick._ "Okay, I'm just going to skip past this. Fine by you, Hatori?"

Hatori glanced up from the book he was reading. "No, we need to look at everything. There is definitely some kind of demon in that office building and skipping anything that might be helpful could lose us vital information."

"We're not going to find anything useful in this book and I am not going to scar my young, nubile mind anymore by reading this. Look!" She pushed the book along the table to Hatori, who picked it up and read a couple of passages in it. His eyes twitched and he promptly shut the book and put it in the 'read' pile.

Motoko smirked, picked up another book, and started reading again.

Hatori and Motoko were inside Shigure's house researching the demon they were now certain was residing in the Sohma office building. A look at recent 'accidents' had assured them fairly quickly. Tohru, Kyo, and Haru were outside training. They had returned from the patrol recently and had been training ever since.

Rin was out looking for Yuki, since they still had no new leads on his whereabouts, and Shigure was off eroding his editor's sanity. Last they had seen, Mai was ransacking Tohru's kitchen. Hatori had told her not to make a mess.

After some time passed and they were not having any luck, Motoko threw down her book in exasperation. "I can't find anything about a demon that paralyzes its victims, and then eats their liquefied internal organs! And you still haven't told me why there are no major investigations going on, _especially_ on murders as ghastly as these!"

Hatori continued reading without a hitch. "I told you, it was done on Sohma property, so police have no say and no inkling as to what happens, and Akito, for some reason, doesn't want anyone to either know about them or to do something about it, okay?"

Motoko sighed dramatically and was about to reply when Mai bounded into the room, done with whatever she had been doing.

"Oh, are you still looking for that demon in those books? You guys should know that the book you find it in is always the last book you look in, so logically it would be at the bottom of the stack!"

Neither Motoko nor Hatori commented on the flaw in her logic and watched as she retrieved the book at the bottom, flipped through a couple of pages and smiled, "That looks about right!"

She put the book on the table and flounced out the room again, this time towards the backyard.

Hatori took off his reading glasses and put them on the table after he had finished scanning the pages Mai had indicated. "This is the right book. It looks like there might be something to Mai's logic after all."

"She _is_ good at finding the information you need."

"Perhaps, but I think most of it is luck…and working off flawed logic."

"Yes…well, Mai is Mai. May I please see the book?"

Hatori sighed. "Aren't you supposed to be good at researching on the Internet? Can _I_ read the book, and _you_ go on the Internet?" he asked.

"Well, if you put it _that_ way." She sulked off, and then returned a moment later. "Where's your computer?" she asked.

Hatori sighed again.

…

Tohru knew that Kyo and Haru would tire out long before she needed a rest, and thus agreed to a break when Haru proposed they take one. He and Kyo were drenched in sweat. Despite having sparred with the boys for the past two hours, she could have continued for a while longer, but decided it would be best not to overwork them.

They sat on the grass in silence for a moment while Kyo and Haru recovered sufficiently to converse. Kyo asked Haru how he had discovered the dark underworld of Japan.

"A few years ago, Rin and I were out late and vamps attacked us. I fought them off," Haru added, after a pause.

Kyo and Tohru waited expectantly for more details to Haru's story, but none seemed forthcoming. "And?" Tohru prompted.

Haru shrugged. "That's it."

"So, Rin knows about vampires, too?"

"No. Hatori suppressed her memories. She was pretty shaken up, and he thought it would be better if she didn't remember what had happened. He actually suppressed mine, too, but I started remembering things."

Kyo glared at the lawn as he plucked a piece of grass. "Well, don't think you can tell her now that we've found out about your weird hobby. The Slayer is supposed to be Tohru's _secret_ identity, and with the amount of people who know who she is, it's not much of a secret anymore."

"I don't think we should tell her, either, but only because of her reaction the last time she met a vamp." Tohru opened her mouth to say something else, but clamped it shut and turned her head sharply toward the road instead. "There's a car coming."

"Slayer hearing," Kyo whispered to Haru.

Nearly five minutes elapsed before Kyo and Haru heard the car, too. By then Tohru had told them that the two people contained in the vehicle were Rin and Ayame.

Once Tohru had announced this, Kyo's eyes narrowed. "What's Rin doing in a car with Ayame? Where did they even _get_ a car?"

The three sprinted to the front of the house, where they impatiently awaited the car's arrival.

When the car came into view Kyo did a double-take.

"Isn't that HATORI'S car!"

Haru looked at it more closely. "It is. Rin must have stolen it."

"How'd she take it without anyone realizing? Hatori doesn't let anyone use his car."

Tohru joined the conversation. "Oh, I'm so stupid! I sensed Rin leaving earlier and I heard a car leaving but I didn't realize she had taken Hatori's car. Now Hatori will be mad at Rin!"

"Rin will be fine, but I still want to know _how _she got the car."

The car pulled to a stop just as Mai jumped up behind them. "Oh, visitors! Guests are always fun, except when they're not!" She then turned and headed towards the house.

By now they had gotten used to Mai's actions and kept their eyes on the car, which had finally come to a stop. Rin got out, walked around the car, opened the door, and dragged Ayame out.

She pulled him towards the house, and nodded in acknowledgement to Tohru, Kyo, and Haru.

"How'd you get the car working?" asked Kyo.

Rin glared at him. "I used the keys."

She continued hauling a complaining Ayame towards the house and Hatori's location.

"Okay, then, how'd she get the keys?" Kyo asked as they followed Rin inside.

…

"Rin, why did you bring Ayame here?" Hatori was already getting the sinking feeling that he knew exactly why Ayame was here.

They were all in the living room looking at a very angry Rin and an upset Ayame. Rin shoved him forward, "Tell them what you told me."

"Rin, I am extremely disappointed by your lack of manners. Any Sohma—with the exception of Kyo—should know better, and—"

"Just say it, Ayame," Hatori commanded him.

Ayame couldn't ignore that. "Well…I helped those girls kidnap Yuki. But it was all in the name of creating a stronger brotherly bond, I assure you!"

The room was silent for a moment, then, "WHAT!"

(End chapter 6)

Author's Note: This took long enough to get up, eh? Not really. I'm making good time with this, if I do say so myself. Which I do. Has anyone noticed that the chapters are steadily becoming longer? They are. Concerning Shigure: the answers to the question (where did he learn it, and for the love of Christmas why) are forthcoming. I don't think I have anything interesting to say, as my brain is fried from my economics final. Next chapter: expect explanations, more character appearances (possibly), and a potentially more interesting AN! Until next time, then… thanks to all of my beloved reviewers. You folks are too nice!


	7. Secret Identities Are Rarely Secret

Disclaimer: I don't own. You don't sue.

Chapter 7: Secret Identities Are Rarely Secret

Tohru and Hatori appeared as if they could both use a shot of something very alcoholic. Kyo helped Tohru into a sitting position on the floor, but left Hatori where he was.

Hatori squeezed his eyes shut and massaged his temples. "Aaya… _why_ would you do something so _stupid_?"

"I told you! To create a stronger brotherly bond with Yuki and get to know him better! Is that so hard to understand?"

"Yes.Yuki is just going to hate you even more now. And do you have any idea what those girls are, or what they'll do to him?" Hatori sat down next to Tohru.

"Now that I think about it, those girls were rather strange, but they look absolutely _divine_ in those outfits I made for them!"

Hatori looked like he was going to throttle Ayame, but Haru spoke up before he could do anything drastic.

"So…you know where they hide out and are keeping Yuki?"

Tohru gasped when she recalled a certain dream she had had a couple of days ago. "Are they in your shop?"

"Of course! Wait…how did you know that?"

"I had a dream, but it was so strange I didn't think it meant anything."

"Well, before you go into a fit of guilt and self-pity I'm telling you that it's alright, it's not you're fault, and you didn't know." Kyo was obviously still trying to comprehend Ayame's logic and actions, and was therefore rather irritable.

"I…wasn't. No one could have known what that dream meant…and it's…silly to beat myself up about it." Tohru puzzled over her words. _That's strange, a few days ago and I wouldn't have forgiven myself, even though I _couldn't_ have known what it meant._

"Go make me some tea, Haru," Hatori commanded. "Rin, tell me why you stole my car."

"I needed to investigate." Haru put an arm around her waist protectively as she defended herself against the doctor's impending wrath.

"I could have surmised as much. The question I should have asked is: how did you get my keys?"

"Her." Rin pointed to Mai, who was ogling Ayame. She remained oblivious to the numerous sets of eyeballs that had turned toward her.

"Mai…_Mai…_ MAI!"

"Er…what?" Mai's attention was finally turned away from Ayame.

"How did you get my keys? Why did you _take_ my keys?"

"Rin asked me to get them so I got them. Why?"

Motoko dragged her eyes from Ayame and joined the conversation. "Just leave it at that. So, you're Yuki's brother?"

"Why yes, I am. You know, you would look marvelous in the new maid outfit I've created."

Kyo rolled his eyes. "What? Do you fan-girls fall for every decent-looking guy you see?"

Motoko seemed offended. "WHAT? Are you insinuating that I would be untrue to the unmatched Yuki?"

"Yes."

Motoko's eyes widened in anger and it looked like she was going to try and attack Kyo. Tohru stepped in. "Listen! Listen! Don't fight each other. We have to go save Yuki as soon as we can!"

"Tohru is right. We need to come up with a plan, and fast." Hatori was looking at Mai still, probably trying to figure out how Mai stole his keys.

"Ayame, how many fan-girls are there in the shop?" Haru asked.

"Oh…I'd have to say six _gorgeous_ girls."

Kyo sighed and shook his head. "Well, at least it's not too many. We can probably take them."

"Oh no!" Everyone looked at Mai again. "Murphy's Law! Something awful will happen." Mai gasped. "The Apocalypse!"

The room was silent as everyone stared, dumbfounded, at Mai, until Rin spoke up.

"Who_ is_ that girl?"

…

"So why, exactly, are we going to Shigure's house?" Uo glanced at Hana as they walked along the path towards said house.

"Because there are many strong, strange waves coming from it. We need to check it out and make sure Tohru is okay." The smaller girl kept her gaze on the ground in front of her.

"Yeah, I agree with your reasons, but don't you think it's a little late? Its pitch black out here. You know, I think we should have called."

"Phones are useless in a situation like this."

"What situation? Since when do we have a _situation_?"

Hana didn't answer and they continued along for a while longer until Hana paused. "Wait, there's something coming. It doesn't feel human."

Uo stopped as well and looked up the trail. She could make out something— a man-shaped something— up ahead, "Are you sure you aren't mistaken? It _looks_ like a person."

The person called out, "Hello, you pretty girls, you seem lost. Why don't you let me help you?"

"No. I am not mistaken. That is no human."

The figure walked closer.

"Are you sure, Hana? It really seems like a man, and a pervert at that. If it looks like a duck and acts like a duck…"

"I am not mistaken." The shape came closer until they could make out its features, which were decidedly _not_ human.

"On second thought, maybe you're right."

The man-thing looked at them for a second and then rushed Hana, grabbed her, and bit into her neck.

"HANA!"

Uo rushed the man and tried to throw him off Hana, but he was too strong. Uo saw Hana literally sparking and wisely decided to back off.

It was a smart move, seeing as the next instant he went up in flames, and then burst into dust.

"Hana! Are you okay?" Uo grabbed Hana before she hit the ground, "What did you do to that thing?"

"I'll be alright. I electrocuted him and his clothes caught fire. I think it would be wise to hurry to Tohru now."

"Yeah, are you sure you're going to be alright? What_ was_ that thing?"

"Not human."

…

All the lights were on and shining from inside the house, and Tohru had locked all the doors and windows. The eight of them were squished around the dining room table planning and drinking tea.

"So," Rin began as she looked over her cup at Tohru and Hatori, "what did you mean when you asked Ayame if he knew what those girls were? What are they, then, and what will they do to Yuki?"

Hatori didn't bat an eye. "They're gang members on LSD, and we don't know what exactly they'll do."

"Uh-huh." Rin didn't look very convinced.

Motoko was impatient. "What are we doing, sitting around this small table as if nothing important was happening? Who knows what wicked things those fan-girls are doing to my precious Yuki! We must save him with the speed of the gods themselves!"

"Bravo! Well said! Though I must admit I'm not seeing any reason to 'save' Yuki. He seemed well enough when I was there."

"Aaya, what _were_ you doing with Yuki, and how exactly did you think that _kidnapping_ him would create a stronger 'brotherly bond'?" Hatori asked.

"Oh, well-"

"Uo and Hana are at the door!" Tohru cried, leaped up, and ran out the room to said door.

Everyone listened as the door unlocked and opened. "Uo! Hana! What are you— Hana! What happened to you! Oh! Come on, this way!" Worry was very evident in her voice.

Their voices came closer to the living room.

"There are some wicked strange things happening of late, Tohru. We just got attacked by this man-thing who _bit_ Hana! We came to make sure everything was okay with you."

They entered the room and everyone saw what had happened to Hana. She had her hand pressed to the side of her neck and some blood was dribbling down her hand.

"Did they…uh…have ridges and fangs and stuff?" Kyo asked nervously, even though he already knew the answer.

"Yeah, how'd you know that, Carrot-top?"

"A bandage would be very appreciated." Hana voiced her need to the crowd.

"Oh! Right! Right!" Tohru looked very flustered and started to rise when Ayame interrupted her.

"Never fear, my dear! I'll go get those bandages!" Ayame left before Tohru could object, Haru quickly rose and followed him.

"I suppose we should tell them about everything, Hatori. Right?" Tohru asked.

"_Secret _identity, Tohru. Secret!" Kyo looked rather infuriated.

"Well, it won't do very much harm, and the more fighters we have the better. You see, Uo, Hana, Rin, there are vampires and demons, and there is the Slayer, who is gifted with the power and skill to stop the powers of darkness. Tohru is a Slayer. An American Slayer changed it so that all the potentials became Slayers."

All three stared at Hatori in different amounts of acceptance.

"That makes perfect sense. It explains everything. Thank you for telling me." Hana nodded to Hatori.

"Look, I can believe the vampires and demon stuff, but— Tohru a _Slayer_? I can't see her slaying anything!" Uo shook her head in disbelief.

"All of it is ridiculous! Vampires and demons are myths! And really, Hatori, slayers?"

Kyo rolled his eyes. "Rin, the _Zodiac, _remember?"

"Oh, right. I guess vampires and demons aren't a far cry from that."

"Why do you need fighters?" Uo asked curiously, remembering what Hatori had said earlier.

Motoko stepped into the fray. "Prince Yuki has been kidnapped by fan-girls turned into vampires, and we must rescue him at _all_ costs. The devious fan-vamps are holed up in Ayame's shop with poor Yuki at this very moment. We are coming up with a plan to save him!"

Uo noticed Motoko and Mai for the first time, "Hey! You used to be the president of the Prince Yuki fan-club, and you used to be Number Two. What are you guys doing here?"

Mai answered, "We are helping to save Yuki! What else?"

Kyo whispered to Tohru, "That's probably the most sane thing she's said since Hatori found her and Motoko."

"Okay." Uo turned back to the rest of the group as Haru yanked Ayame in the room.

"Here." Haru handed Tohru some bandages. "Ayame tried to escape." He pushed Ayame onto the floor. "Sit. Stay."

"That reminds me, where is Shigure? I hope he's okay. He should be home." Tohru wondered as she patched Hana's neck up. Tohru was now more convinced than ever that she would take up her duty as a Slayer and prevent this from happening to people in the future.

Ayame and Hatori answered together, "He's at the Main House." Ayame started giggling, and Hatori continued, "Shigure will be okay."

"There's something about a grown man giggling that's _really_ creepy." Uo observed as they watched Ayame.

"So, back to the plan!"

Mai became dreamy eyed as she thought. "We'll go in charging with 'The Flight of the Valkyries' playing in the background, and in a heartrending, tragic fighting montage we'll fight hand-to-hand with our fierce enemy! And as one by one friend and foe start to die I'll run to Yuki, but before I can get to him Rika Aida will stop me and I'll be forced to fight with her! But in the end I will win gloriously and free Yuki and he'll declare his undying love to me with the only survivor looking on! Ohhh, it's _perfect!_"

Everyone in the room, with the exception of Ayame and Tohru, sighed, shook their head, or groaned.

"So, who was the survivor?" Ayame seemed genuinely interested.

"Kyo of course!" Kyo looked rather taken aback.

"I'm not going to watch Yuki declare his love for anyone! How about a real plan— where we don't die!"

"Hey…Ayame is it? How many doors are there in the shop? How do you reach them and where are they located?" Uo questioned Ayame, and they started to plot.

(End Chapter 7)

A/N: The end! Ha, I crack myself up. Just kidding, folks. There are still many mysteries yet to be solved, and a few more characters to be introduced. Once again, thank you ever so much for all my loyal readers. You only have about five more chapters left, so get those reviews in… if you so desire. I know I do. Next chapter: unlike this chapter, which was all exposition and dialogue, chapter 8 will be an action-packed dust-fest.


	8. Shopping for Destruction

Disclaimer: If Fruits Basket isn't mine than BtVS probably isn't mine.

Chapter 8: Shopping for Destruction

Ayame's shop was located downtown, in the midst of the city's swankiest hotels, restaurants, and stores, and only a five minute walk away from the infamous red-light district. In other words, Ayame had chosen the perfect place to open a business specializing in women's lingerie— and fulfilling men's fantasies, as he had adamantly insisted Yuki and Tohru acknowledge when they last visited.

Ayame said no less when Uo, while they were devising a plan of action, asked him what he sold.

As the band of warriors stood in the light of the rising sun the next morning, staring at the front window of the shop, Uo's face contorted into an expression of disgust, her nose wrinkled, and she whispered, "Remind me to never get left alone in a room with him." Tohru assured she would do so as many times a day as necessary.

All ten were armed with as many stakes, vials of holy water, bunches of garlic, and crosses as they could reasonably carry and still be able to battle.

They were all there, even Mai, who had put up such a fuss about being left behind that they had taken her along, but had put her with Rin and Haru because they were going to guard an area that wasn't going to be seeing a lot of fighting— hopefully.

Ayame was left at the house, tied up so he couldn't leave and warn the fan-vamps. He was still utterly clueless about the true identity of the fan-girls even after the questions Uo had asked and some comments that had been made.

"I guess this is it, then. Good luck, everyone." Tohru looked extremely nervous, but determined to save Yuki.

They said their good-byes and went off in separate groups to their positions.

…

Tohru and Kyo remained in the sunlight as the groups split, and were going to barge in through main entrance in 5 minutes to crash the fan-vamps' party.

"Ready?" Kyo asked.

Tohru laughed haltingly. "No, but ready or not—!"

"Here we come," he finished. They both chuckled, longer and louder than such a lame jest would have normally warranted.

"Do you think Yuki's really in there?" Tohru whispered, now afraid that they'd given away their position to the enemy.

"That damn rat had better be. We're risking our lives for his wimpy, white, never-had-a-girlfriend ass."

"Have _you_ ever had a girlfriend?" she asked hesitantly

Kyo glowered. "What do you think Kagura is?"

Tohru felt like he'd slapped her. "Since when are you dating Kagura?"

"I didn't mean it like that!" Kyo hastily began again. "It's just that Kagura won't take a hint and go away, so it's _like_ having a girlfriend, only I don't love her back, you know? And Yuki doesn't have a Kagura." He glanced at her askew. "Did that make any sense?"

Tohru twisted a stake around in her hands, biting her lip and refusing to look him in the eye. "Uh-huh. I understand. Don't worry about it."

Tohru could feel from the change in his vibes, however, that he was _very _worried about it.

…

Rin, Haru, and Mai were in the next group. They were going to go in the back door and guard it to make sure no vampires escaped. 3 minutes now.

Rin and Haru hugged, "Be careful, Haru. I won't ever forgive you if you get hurt." Haru kissed her forehead.

"Don't worry."

Mai was completely oblivious to the couple behind her and was preparing herself. The others had practically buried her in crosses and garlic, and had given her some stakes. She began humming "The Flight of the Valkyries."

…

Motoko shifted nervously in the front passenger seat of Hatori's car. Hatori turned the key in the ignition and switched on the radio. Motoko took this as an indication that he didn't want to talk.

She played with a lock of her hair to pass the time, wrapping it around her finger and then carefully pulling the finger out to see if she could get the hair to curl. When it wouldn't, she gave up, instead twisting the hair tightly and watching it unravel when she let go. She was so absorbed in her game that she didn't notice Hatori staring quizzically at her until he cleared his throat.

Motoko blushed and smiled weakly at him. "Yes?"

"I was going to ask if you'd like to choose the radio station."

Something baroque was playing softly. "No, this is acceptable." There was another awkward silence before she decided to strike up a conversation with the enigmatic cousin of her beloved. "How long have you had the car?"

He seemed to visibly deflate, causing his hair to fall into his eyes. "A few years."

"It's nice."

"I think so, too. It carries a lot of memories."

Hatori's reaction to her question intrigued her. "Are they good or bad?"

"Both." He turned his gaze back to her. "I bought it with my ex-girlfriend," he explained, cautiously.

Motoko didn't know how to respond to that. Should she try to comfort him, with a hug or a pat on the hand, or would he take offense if she did? She suddenly felt dreadfully shy, and very young next to Hatori, although she knew he couldn't be very much older.

"I'm sorry," she finally answered, looking out the window.

…

It was time. Each group moved in, like planned. Tohru and Kyo would cover the front door, and move in with caution. Uo and Hana would have the back door. Rin, Haru, and Mai would each go to a separate wall and take the windows there. Matoko and Hatori would guard the perimeter, and have the car ready, just in case.

Tohru felt the vampire's presence as they approached the front door. She held up a hand in a gesture that meant 'stop'. Kyo obeyed. Doing a half walk/half crouch she stealthily moved up to the wall right next to the door. She stood up against it, and…knocked on the door.

The door opened. "Yes?" A female voice said. A pause, and "Anyone there?" A few more seconds passed, and then the girl stuck her head out. _I know her._ Tohru thought, before grabbing the girl's mouth and pulling her out the rest of the way. The Fan-vamp struggled, and Tohru raised her stake to dust her when she faltered momentarily. The Fan-vamp's outfit was _scandalous_. That furthered her resolve to rescue Yuki from this place. The stake plunged.

Kyo came up to her. "_Those_ are the outfits that Ayame sells?" He sounded outraged. Tohru nodded mutely. "We have to put him out of business!" Tohru nodded again.

The two moved into the shop itself.

…

"Time to go." Uo observed quietly.

"Be on your guard, Uo." Hana kept her gaze on the door.

"I plan to stake me a vamp, so I'm expecting you to do your part and roast a few."

Uo and Hana moved up the stairs to the back door with grace and dignity. Well, Hana did. Uo was itching for the fight.

They reached the door. Hana sent out denpa waves to see if any Fan-vamps were near. "There are no vampires guarding this door," she reported.

Uo reached out, and twisted the doorknob. It was unlocked. "Whoa, is this a bad tactical strategy or what?"

"I believe they are simply idiots."

"Ah."

They walked in.

…

Rin, Haru, and Mai quickly split up to go to each's respective goals.

Rin had the front windows. After seeing Tohru and Kyo go in, she clutched her stake closer to herself and went to the windows. There were nothing in the first two, and the third one was unlocked. It appeared to lead into a storage room. She opened it and slipped in.

When she set down her foot, she lost her traction. After grabbing the window sill, she looked down. It was a crimson, sticky substance…blood. When that realization hit her, she blanched. She followed the trail of blood with her eyes and saw two legs, hidden behind a pile of cloth.

Carefully walking over, she saw a dead girl. She recognized her from Yuki's school. There were two small holes in her neck.

"Poor girl," she murmured.

The girl's eyes opened. "I disagree. There is nothing_ poor_ about me."

Rin gasped and backed up. The girl sat up. "I feel hungry." She said to herself. Looking up, she smiled. "You'll do just fine." Her face instantly morphed. Her eyes became yellow, she grew fangs, and her forehead became ridged.

The vampire charged with such speed that Rin instinctively kicked out. The kick landed, and the vampire flew across the room. _Must be the horse in me,_ she thought distantly. She remembered Matoko's and Hatori's instructions. Rushing over, she raised the stake and drove it down, noting the quite revealing outfit. Her stake missed.

Uh oh.

The vampire was still dazed, so Rin quickly raised it again and, this time, staked her.

That was close. She got up. Suddenly she realized that the vampire had just exploded into dust. _Well, I guess they were right. Demons and vampires exist. _She cautiously went to the door, and listened for anybody outside it. Nothing. She carefully opened the door, and slipped past it.

…

Haru hoped that Rin would be okay as he watched her slip into the shop. Sighing, he went to his designated windows.

Examining one, he found himself gazing into the eyes of a fan-vamp. She snarled and hurled herself through the window at Haru. With a loud crash, the pane shattered, and Haru sidestepped to avoid the flying glass.

Without her prey to bring to an end to her voyage through the air, the fan-vamp collided with the ground and slid another meter into the bright morning sunshine. She promptly combusted into a writhing, shrieking mound of flame.

Haru exhaled noisily and muttered something about stupid fan-girls. He turned his head in time to see Mai turn the corner, staying in broad daylight as they had instructed her.

He jumped into the window the fan-vamp had so considerately opened for him.

He took in his surroundings and didn't see or sense anything living (or dead). He shrugged and crossed the room to the door on the other side and opened it. Haru was now in the sewing room. He looked around in wide-eyed wonder.

"Good God!" he whispered, "Ayame must be stopped!"

…

Mai turned the corner and, staying in the sunlight, discovered herself in front of another set of windows. She approached them cautiously. _The others told me to stay in the sunlight at all costs, but I have to go and save Yuki! Who knows what insidious deeds the fan-girls are doing?_

She made up her mind and quickened her pace towards the windows, unconsciously staying in the daylight. That's when she noticed the small door tucked away in shadow, very neatly hidden.

_Aha! So the splendid Yuki's brother lied! Now I can go charging in gallantly to save Yuki, instead of climbing through those nasty, grimy windows._

Mai skipped happily to the door and turned the knob, only to find that it was locked. Mai was disappointed but then turned cheerful when she realized that now she could kick the door down like those beautiful people- they didn't compare to Yuki of course- in the American movies she liked to watch.

Mai backed up and kicked the door. The door didn't even dent, and now she had a very sore foot.

"Owww…oww…ow…that was a mistake," Mai lamented as she held her foot. She straightened as she raised her voice, "Hello! Hey, is anyone in there?" she called through the door.

"Yeah, someone is here, why?" A voice called back from inside Ayame's shop.

"Oh! I need to get in. Could you open the door? Please?"

"Sure! Just a second!"

After a few seconds Mai heard the lock click and the door opened. She saw a girl standing there, dressed in a _very_ revealing outfit smiling at her and beckoning her to come in.

"Oh, um…why don't you come out here, first?" Mai was suspicious of the girl, since she vaguely remembered seeing someone who looked like her during a Yuki Fan-club meeting.

The girl was either extremely dumb, not a vampire, or didn't see that Mai was standing in a patch of sunlight.

"Sure!" the girl chirped cheerfully and promptly went up in flames when she flounced over to where Mai was standing.

"I'm guessing that you were a vampire. Sucks to be you!"

Mai walked up to the door, made sure the door was unlocked, closed it, and then slammed it open in what she was sure was a dramatic and inspiring entrance.

She glanced around her and took in the surroundings.

"What an awful place!" she cried as she took off in a random direction.

She ran to the next room and swiftly ran into something. She fell over and looked up to see a very angry Rin.

"You're supposed to be outside."

…

Tohru and Kyo stood amongst the shelves of cloth and racks of clothes that made up the show-room in Ayame's shop.

The lights were off and it was hard to see, so they had consequently been stumbling around blindly and wishing fervently that they had thought to bring flashlights. They depended on Tohru to tell if the objects they ran into were vampires or not.

"Where do you think Yuki and the rest of the fan-vamps are?" Tohru whispered to Kyo.

"How the hell should I know? I've never been here before! You're the one with the slayer sense, anyway." Kyo answered in a louder voice.

They both turned and jumped when they heard a rustling noise come from somewhere in the shelves near them.

"What was that?" Tohru asked very quietly.

"I don't know! Do I have to spell it out? There could be anything in here!"

"It could have been a rat."

"I wouldn't be surprised."

Both tried to move stealthily towards the area where the sound had originated, but they found it rather difficult to do and ran into a few shelves as they made their way through the shop. Tohru nearly shrieked when she felt something move over her foot. Kyo grabbed the offender and held it up so he could see it a little better. He snorted.

"It's a rat."

Tohru chuckled nervously "Oh, I feel kind of silly."

Kyo tossed the rat forcefully away. He had long ago decided that he didn't care for any kind of rat, zodiac or not, and smiled when he heard it collide with something and squeak painfully.

"Don't be—" Whatever he was going to say was cut off as the noise came again louder. Now it sounded like— sobbing?

"It sounds like a girl, and it's coming from over there." Tohru pointed. "It's weird. I can't tell if it's human or not."

They continued in the direction Tohru had indicated when it stopped and they heard a gasp. "Oh, please don't hurt me! Please!" the girl begged. She got up from where she had been huddled on the floor and threw her arms around Kyo and hugged him.

Tohru gasped as Kyo threw the girl off him. She landed on the floor a few feet away. The girl snarled in a very in-human way, jumped up, and raced towards Kyo.

"That was very rude," she cried as she leaped to attack Kyo and imbedded herself on the stake he held. It was when she dusted that both Tohru and Kyo realized that Kyo _had not_ turned into the cat.

"Kyo! Are you alright…why didn't you transform?"

"I…I don't know. Maybe it's because she was undead."

"Maybe. Come on, we have to find Yuki."

Kyo nodded, and they stumbled blindly around for a while longer before Kyo ran into a wall that luckily held the light switches. He flipped a couple and sighed in relief when the lights flickered on. Kyo frowned when he saw that all the other lights switches were flipped into the "on" position, which indicated that the only room that had been dark was the one they were in.

"I didn't think the fan-vamps were smart enough to set a trap. Maybe Rika has some brains," Kyo said to himself.

"Kyo! This way!" Tohru whispered excitedly as she gestured wildly to a closed door to their left, nearly hidden behind a ribbon-and-ruffle laden ball gown. "It's Uo and Hana."

They approached the indicated door and stood next to the wall on either side of it. Tohru nodded to Kyo, who was next to the doorknob. He threw the door open and Tohru ran into the room. She collided with Uo, who, after the initial shock, gave her a big hug. Hana was right behind her.

"Jeez, you guys sure know how to make an entrance. Kyo-Kyo, you didn't have to slam the door so hard. Now every fan-vamp will be coming to see what made the noise." Uo considered that for a moment, and then said. "Well, actually, I think that's a good thing. C'mon guys! We gotta go save Yuki and kick some undead butt!"

"We've already kicked most of it," Kyo informed her, "but if we find anymore, you'll have first dibs."

"You're in luck, Uo. There are two trying to escape into the basement as we speak." Blue sparks crackled around Hana and she strode away from the group. Uo followed.

"I didn't even realize. What would I do without them?" Tohru happily gushed to Kyo.

"There's a basement? Since when is there a basement? Hey! Ayame didn't say anything about a basement!" Kyo ranted as he and Tohru caught up to Uo and Hana.

"This is a creepy place, you know?" Uo said, "I am never coming back here." She paused, "Uugghh, some nasty thoughts just occurred to me about the basement."

"Wait. There's some people coming. Not vampire, human." Hana paused and turned her head to one of the doors in the hallway they were walking in, just as it opened and a flustered Rin came out dragging Mai, who was protesting profusely.

"Mai! You were supposed to stay outside. Was that _really_ so hard to do? You're going to listen to me and do as I say! Okay?" Rin finally caught sight of the four in the hallway. "Hi. I found Mai wandering about, so now I have to drag her around and she won't shut up. Where are you going?"

"The basement. There're two fleeing vampires there. We found a rat in here, so this place must have sewer access," Tohru answered.

"Really? Sewer access… that explains why they're going to the basement. Follow us—we don't have time to find Haru." Uo started walking again.

"It's a good thing I found you guys first, then," Haru said, coming out from another door. "Some of what I've found in here is absolutely frightening. I wouldn't want to be in here alone."

"Haru!" Rin let go of Mai's arm in favor of Haru's. "Let's go, now that everyone's here."

Tohru disappeared down the staircase, followed by her entourage. Kyo made sure he wasn't far behind her, just in case.

…

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Tohru immediately spotted Yuki, lying on the floor of a giant birdcage.

"Yuki!" She whispered. Tohru looked around before hurrying over to the birdcage. _Wait…Birdcage?_ She quickly squashed the mental images, but she didn't think everyone else did.

"Yuki?" She said again. He was conscious, but had a glazed expression on his face. She got the impression he was zoning out for his mental health. She used her Slayer senses and quickly determined he was also still a living, undemonic being.

By then everyone else was standing next to her. "Hey, you damn rat, snap out of it!" Kyo viciously shook the bird cage.

"Kyo?" Yuki murmured, still with the dazed look in his eyes. "Why would he be here? I must really be going insane."

"Yuki! Don't say that. You've just gone through a very traumatizing experience, that we're here to rescue from, and any normal person would probably be crazy from." Tohru paused for a moment. "Wait…"

"Don't bother, Tohru. He's too shell-shocked. Anyone in his position would be. We need to get him out of here, and then doctor boy can help him. Can you bust open the door?" Uo asked.

"Hatori's a family doctor, not a psychologist. And yes I can." Tohru walked over to the cage's locked door, and grabbed the lock. She pulled at it, easily twisting the lock off. Opening the door, she pulled Yuki out and handed him to Rin and Haru.

"Bring him out to the car." She instructed them. "The rest of us have a few vampires to stake."

They nodded and separated. Rin, Yuki, and Haru vanished up the stairs, but Rin and Haru pretty much had to drag him up.

The rest turned to Tohru. "There are two vampires remaining. They are trying to escape to the sewers below here. Ready to stake some undead butt?" She asked, before walking over to the only other door down here. She tried not to think about how different she had sounded just then.

…

"Hey…Hatori? Did you just see that?" Motoko asked. She had been watching the shop out of the window, when she had seen a figure turn the corner, in the shade.

"No."

"Well, I did. I think one of the vampires escaped."

"It's bright sunlight out. What vampire would be dumb enough to go out in the sun?"

"Fan-vamps."

"Very well." He sighed. "You may go out and check. If it is indeed a 'fan-vamp', please try to capture her alive. There are still questions I wish to ask one of them."

"Indeed." Motoko grabbed a stake, holy water, and some garlic. After making sure her cross necklace was on, she opened the door and walked cautiously towards the corner the figure had disappeared behind.

After turning, in the sunlight of course, she found that her suspicions had been correct. A fan-vamp was standing and the edge of the shade, apparently trying to determine a way to cross the long stretch of sunlight to the shade which would be her path to escape and freedom.

"Stay right there, you fiendish villain! Move and you'll be incinerated!" Motoko commanded the clueless fan-vamp.

Motoko saw that the vamp was entirely surrounded by sunlight, the only way out being back the way the vamp had come, and if she stayed in that piece of shade for much longer it was going to move and leave her at the mercy of the sun. There was no way to get her to the car, unless…

Motoko beckoned Hatori and the car over. Hatori must have been watching her as the car immediately moved towards her. It stopped a few feet away from the fan-vamp. Motoko walked to the car window that was being rolled down.

"It's a fan-vamp, but the only way to capture her is to get her into the car right here, so you'll have to invite her in. Don't worry about her attacking you. I'll set up the back seat so she can't move."

Hatori sighed as Motoko started setting up garlic and crosses in the back seat, "I see I don't have much of a choice." He turned his attention to the fan-vamp, who was staring hungrily at him and the car. The vamp had not heard the conversation between him and Motoko.

After a minute or so Motoko climbed out of the back seat and walked to the girl, who she finally recognized as Minami Kinoshita.

"Hey, Minami! How've you been?" she asked as she walked closer. When she was close enough she grabbed Minami, and keeping herself between Minami and the sunlight, dragged the shocked Minami— who had not been expecting to be grabbed and unable to move because of the crosses and garlic that were dangling dangerously close to her face— into the car, which was full of crosses and garlic spaced in a way that once Motoko sat next to her would keep her in the car unless she wanted intense pain.

Motoko sat next to Minami with a stake ready in her hand and Hatori backed the car into the sunlight so it would be impossible to escape with her undead life intact.

Hatori stopped the car and turned around to face the vampire.

"Tell me, why did you kidnap Yuki? Who is in charge?"

Minami looked like she was going to refuse to talk until Motoko poked her lightly with the stake. Minami got the message.

"We took the wondrous Yuki because we wanted to preserve his glory forever! We wanted to protect him. Rika Aida leads us, but someone else commands her!"

"Who?"

Minami was about to reply when Motoko and Hatori felt something change in the air. Minami gasped and threw herself out the car into the glaring daylight.

"What happened?" Motoko asked Hatori as they stared at the pile of dust that had been Minami.

"Magic. Compulsion magic." Hatori answered grimly. "I believe that there is much, much more to this than just Yuki and Rika Aida."

"You mean there's magic on the fan-vamps to make them kill themselves if they are about to tell someone who's really in charge."

"It would seem so."

Motoko opened her mouth to say something when Haru and Rin came running out the building holding Yuki. Motoko immediately opened the back seat door and got out of the car to help them. They laid him across the back seats.

"They didn't turn him," Hatori said with relief.

"What _did_ they do to him, in that case?" Motoko asked Rin.

"We don't know. We found him in a huge birdcage that was in the basement. I hope the fan-vamps brought it in themselves and Ayame didn't already have it there, but I wouldn't count on it."

"So that's where the birdcage went to." Hatori muttered as he checked Yuki for any physical wounds.

Motoko, Rin, and Haru stared at him. "I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I don't want to know," Rin chanted.

"Where are the others?" Hatori asked Haru.

"They're all safe. There were two vampires escaping to the basement, that's where we found Yuki, we think they have sewer access. The others are chasing them." Haru noticed the pile of dust he was standing on. "So even you guys saw some action." Haru shook his head. "Brainless fan-girls."

"There's someone behind Rika and the other vampires, and, apparently, fairly powerful, too. I'll tell you more when everyone else is here."

…

Tohru and the remaining combatants made their way further into the basement, following Hana and her waves.

"They are around that bend. They've stopped," Hana informed them and everyone sped up.

"All right," Uo said. "I've been waiting for this."

The five of them turned the bend and saw Rika Aida and… _Mine?_ The two turned their attention from the open hatch in the ground to the group.

"Well, it took you long enough. Mine, take care of this. I have to report back." Rika jumped down the hatch after Mine nodded.

"You don't look so tough," Mine sneered. She charged at them—like all the fan-vamps seemed to like doing— she reached Tohru, who instinctively grabbed Mine and threw her— right onto Mai. Tohru gasped.

Mine screamed and burst into flame, since Mai was covered head to foot in holy crosses and garlic. Mai brushed some of the dust off of her and started sneezing.

"Oh…achoo…great, now…ACHOO…I've got dust…ah…ah…achoo…all over me!"

"I AM SO SORRY! I DIDN'T REALIZE YOU WERE THERE! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!"

"Calm down Tohru. It'll be okay!" Uo told her.

Kyo and Hana were standing next to the hatch.

"Yep. Definitely sewer access. Ayame didn't tell us that. Too late now, though. Rika is gone for good. We won't be able to catch up." Kyo kicked the hatch closed.

"We should get back to the car. It will be good to get out of here," Hana announced and started walking away.

"Wait Hana! We should at least look around for some clues or something," Uo called to her.

Hana stopped, turned her head slowly, and said in a sinister sort of voice, "I already have. There is nothing but the evil remains of the undead." Hana laughed maniacally.

"Okay, Hana, that was creepy. But did you find any clues?" Uo asked curiously.

"No. Just clothes that should be burned." Hana started to walk away again.

They all stared after her. Then Mai said happily, "That's a great idea! I'll go see if we have matches and gasoline." Mai skipped joyfully after Hana.

"We should probably go make sure she doesn't hurt herself. Let's get going. I don't want to stay here any longer." Uo pushed Tohru gently forward to get her moving and Kyo rather forcefully.

(End Chapter 8)

A/N: Slayer Mythology 101:

'Into each generation a Slayer is born.

One Girl in all the world,

A chosen one, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the Vampires,

to stop the spread of evil.'

This quote was taken from Buffy, Season One, Episode One, "Welcome to the Hellmouth." It is restated throughout the series, as well as in its companion show, Angel. At the end of BtVS, Season Seven, Buffy awakens all of the Slayer Potentials in the world, which leads to thousands of Slayers, all women, wandering the earth, and, in most cases, using their extraordinary powers to vanquish evil stuff.

In the Buffyverse, one becomes a vampire through a disgusting blood exchange, where the vamp drinks the blood of the victim and the victim, in turn, drinks the vamp's blood. I believe Anne Rice and Dracula have the same system in their stories.

That wraps up today's installment of Slayer Myth 101!


	9. Splitting Up Is Always a Bad Idea

Disclaimer: I would like to own FB and BtVS, but, unfortunately, I don't.

Chapter 9: Splitting Up Is Always A Bad Idea (Or, Sultry Stories.)

"Alright, everyone, I see you're all intact," Hatori said as everyone approached his car and gathered around it. "That's good. Yuki will be fine with some rest. There is a lot we need to cover, but first we need to make sure we got all the vampires. Tohru, Kyo, how many did you get?"

"Two." Tohru answered.

"I got one. It had just turned." Rin said as Hatori turned his attention to her.

"I also staked one." Haru stated as he grinned approvingly at Rin.

"I got two! Well, okay, one walked outside to her own demise, and the other was thrown on me, but doesn't that count?" Mai chirped cheerfully.

"I'm still really sorry about throwing Mine on you. I really didn't mean to." Tohru was still upset about that.

"Hana and I didn't get any, unfortunately, so I can't wait to go patrolling!" Uo was excited about the prospect.

"And there was Minami, which makes seven. Who got Rika?" Motoko asked.

"No one. She got away. That makes eight. I believe that was all of them." Hana informed them.

Hatori looked around and seemed to notice the neighborhood they were in for the first time and frowned.

"This isn't the best place to talk, and there isn't enough room in the car to bring everyone, the weapons, and Yuki. I have room for Yuki, all the weapons, and one other person besides myself. Everyone else will have to take the bus or find some other way to get back to Shigure's house. We'll discuss everything there."

Everyone stowed their weapons in the trunk and car, careful of Yuki (who had passed out), and then proceeded to play rock, paper, scissors for the right to be in the car.

Motoko won.

Those who had lost said goodbye and started coming up with the fastest way to get home. Haru, Kyo, and Rin had reacted rather badly to the idea of a crowded bus, and had decided that they would walk home while everyone else rode. The rest of the group decided that walking home might not be so bad of an idea when they saw the condition of the bus…and realized they had no money.

…

Motoko and Hatori buckled up as soon as their fellow warriors began their long trek to Shigure's.

"Is he really going to be okay?" Motoko asked Hatori while glancing back at Yuki in the rearview mirror.

Hatori drove to the end of the road and turned on his left turn signal, looking around for approaching traffic. Once he had safely maneuvered the car in the direction of their destination, he replied, "Yes, but I'm going to keep him under observation tomorrow, just in case there's anything we overlooked."

Motoko nodded absently. She had gone from gazing at Yuki to looking between her beloved and his cousin. While Yuki was beautiful, Hatori was handsome, and bore no resemblance to a woman, as Yuki did. Until she had seen the two together, Motoko had not noticed how much Yuki reminded her of the fairer gender. Had he been wearing a dress, he could have passed as a girl.

She barely knew Yuki, Motoko realized to a degree of shock. She could name his favorite color, his class schedules for the past three years, and even what brand of socks he wore, but she had no knowledge of what went on inside his head.

Hatori had been her internet chum for months, and within his message board postings were small clues about himself, which Yuki never gave. Motoko could talk to Hatori.

A groan from the backseat alerted Hatori and Motoko that Yuki was conscious and that Motoko would have to resume her thoughts at a later time.

…

The exhausted group arrived about an hour after Hatori, Motoko, and Yuki. Yuki was awake and coherent, and had been filled in on everything that had transpired between his kidnapping and rescue, and about Slayers, and the three of them were eating take-out. They had had the foresight and kindness to order some for the rest of them. Ayame was still trussed and gagged due to Yuki's wishes and was in the next room out of sight.

The seven arrivals quickly squished themselves around the table and started sorting the take-out. It took a few minutes of eating and resting before they were ready to get down to business.

"We have reason to believe that there is a higher evil entity involved with Yuki's kidnapping, and that there was greater purpose behind it. This individual has access to rather powerful magic and probably has some grudge against the Sohma family." Hatori informed them as they continued to eat. "Yuki, tell them what you told us."

"Those girls were always talking about 'the boss' but would never give a name. Rika would sometimes talk about something called a 'vengeance demon' and something about insanity, but she was never very clear about it."

"Hey, rat boy! Question here: why didn't they kill you?" Kyo asked.

"They would get into fights about who would be my…sire? Was it? And Rika was smart enough to know that if she demanded it the others would tear her apart. So they were going to hold some kind of contest, and the winner would get to be my sire. What did they mean by sire, Hatori?"

"A sire is the vampire that turns another vampire. They were trying to decide who would kill you and turn you. Now, contest you say? That contest might have some clues. Did you know what kind of contest it was?"

"They were going to hold a fashion contest. Some sort of 'walk-off.' I don't know how they were going to score it, but Rika probably had it rigged. They were going to hold it tomorrow, but not any more."

"I should have known. There's quite a bit we need to do: we have to deal with Ayame, investigate the demon in the Sohma Office Building, research this vengeance demon, and Tohru needs to do some sweeps of the graveyards later."

"What about sleep? We've been up all night fighting! We aren't superhuman!" Kyo cried. "Well, most of us aren't," he added.

"Fine, you and the others can sleep, but we really need to get on this." Hatori answered. Kyo, Haru, Rin, and Uo all got to their feet and headed upstairs. Tohru looked at Hatori apologetically and said, "I have work tonight, and I really need to get some sleep, especially if I'm going to do a sweep. I'm really sorry." Tohru stood and followed the others.

Hana glanced up from her food for a second to say, "I don't need sleep," before looking down again to continue eating.

"I've been getting a lot of sleep in lately. I don't need any more." Yuki told them. A sudden thought crossed Yuki's mind. "Where's Shigure?"

"He's at the Main House still. He's fine, don't worry about him." Hatori answered. "Now, how are we going to split up the rest of the work? Mai and Motoko can research this vengeance demon, if you're not going to get some rest, and I'll probably have to deal with Ayame. What will you do, Yuki? Hana?"

"I don't want to see Ayame ever again. If I do, I'll kill him. So, I guess that means I'll help everyone else." Yuki answered.

"I think I'll go help out in the kitchen." Hana rose and walked gracefully towards the aforementioned room.

"We don't need any help in the kitchen," Hatori called out after her. There was no answer.

"That's just Hana, she's probably making snacks or something, I think she'll be back out here and helping us in a while." Yuki told him.

"Come on, Mai; let's get to work on this devilish demon!" Motoko dragged Mai out of the room.

"But I want to get some sleep, too!" she protested.

"You can sleep later." The door slammed shut and Motoko and Mai were gone. Hatori and Yuki looked at each other. Yuki got to his feet and decided that since the take-out was all gone, maybe the kitchen wasn't such a bad idea. Hatori watched as Yuki left the room, sighed, and went to the room were Ayame was being held.

…

"Ha'ri! I don't see the point in all this! And what did you do to those delightful girls?" Ayame said as the gag came off.

"Be quiet for now. We simply went to your shop and…persuaded the girls to leave and give back Yuki. They agreed. And I believe that your assistant Mine got a better job offer in Kyoto. I am going to let you go, but don't come back here for a long, long time if you want to keep your life." Hatori untied Ayame and shoved him towards the door, "Go."

"You shouldn't handle people so roughly, you know! It's very rude. Wait, wait, Mine left? What will I do? Mine left! Mine would never leave!" Ayame wailed.

"Just. Go."

"Going." Ayame walked out into glaring sunlight, noticeably upset.

Hatori sighed and decided that raiding Shigure's hidden wine reserves in the kitchen sounded like a good idea.

When he walked into the kitchen he found Hana eating the last of the desert that Tohru had made earlier and Yuki attempting to heat up some of Tohru's beef soup with Hana offering 'helpful' advice.

Hatori wrinkled his nose at the smell of the badly burned soup. He casually walked to the hidden cache, trying not to be noticed, and opened the cabinet, and blinked when he found that the empty bottles the wine had been hidden in were gone and cleaning supplies were in there place. He opened a few and groaned when they turned out to be actual cleaning supplies.

_Shigure must have moved the cache. I guess I'll have to drink whatever's in the fridge._

A quick perusal of the fridge showed that the only beverage he was going to have was either water or orange juice. He opted for water. He sat down next to Hana and watched in growing amusement at the sight of Yuki attempting to cook, and almost smiled at the advice that Hana was giving Yuki, which Yuki actually heeded.

…

It was night now, and Tohru, Uo, Rin, Kyo, and Haru were patrolling, the latter four to get away from any chance of being volunteered for research work.

They still hadn't found anything about the vengeance demon, or about any demonic activity at the office building. The group was planning to go back and search the building when Tohru was done with patrolling.

"So…are there going to be any vampires?" Uo asked, after a fruitless twenty minutes of patrolling. "This is getting so frustrating! I'm the only one in the group so far who hasn't staked a vampire!"

"I don't think Yuki has either, or Motoko, or Hatori," Tohru offered consolingly.

"No, Motoko's staked a few, but Hatori and Yuki haven't," Kyo muttered. "I doubt rat-boy ever will." He turned his ire towards Rin and Haru, who were busy passionately kissing behind a tombstone. "And you two will never stake another vampire if you keep that up! Cut it out and get back to patrolling!"

Haru, without unlocking his lips from Rin's, removed his hands from her hair and hurled a bottle of holy water at Kyo. Kyo snatched it out of the air before it hit him and, in the same movement, lobbed it back. The bottle shattered against the tombstone.

Uo whacked the back of Kyo's head. "Quit messing around, Kyo. You're just jealous."

Even in the dark, Tohru could see Kyo blush furiously. "I am not! And they're the one's who're messing around."

"You know what—" Uo was cut off by a snarl. "Sounds like a vamp! It's mine!"

Uo eagerly looked around for it and was rewarded with the sight of a vampire walking around a nearby tombstone towards them. The vampire growled at them and charged like all good vampires do. Uo ran towards the on-coming vampire with her stake ready, and after a little tussle rammed her stake into its heart. The vamp stiffened and exploded into dust.

"Alright! That was awesome! Let's go find some more! Haru, Rin, stop messing around, we have to go stop the forces of evil! This is a great way to relieve stress. Which way now, Tohru?"

"Oh…um, that way, I think I see something." Tohru pointed, and they could vaguely see a shadowy figure moving about in the dark up ahead.

They all, including Rin and Haru, who had finally stopped kissing, approached the figure cautiously. The figure became increasingly familiar the closer they got, until they were near enough to make out the shape well enough to see that it was… Momiji.

"Momiji! What are you doing out here? It's way to late to be up, and in a graveyard!" Tohru cried.

Momiji turned around and smiled. "_Wie gehts? _There you guys are. I thought I had lost you! You were acting weird at work, and I went by Shigure's this morning and found Ayame tied up. What was that about? Anyways, I followed you here. I have to say this is a strange to place to hang out at night. It could be dangerous. And besides! If you're all up, it can't be that late…what are you doing out here?"

"None of your damn business! Now come on, we're going home." Kyo growled as he turned and started leading the group back towards Shigure's house.

Tohru caught up with Kyo and asked, "What are we going to do? I don't think we should tell too many more people about the whole vampire thing, and if we go back home then he's going to notice the books and weapons and stuff."

"_Now_ you understand the secret identity. I don't know what we're going to do. I'm just going to let Hatori handle it."

Momiji sat down on the edge of a headstone, grinning. His smile faded, however, when he saw the stake in Uo's hand.

"_Was ist das?_" he inquired. Instead of an answer, he received blank stares. "What is that?" he asked again, this time in a language they all spoke.

"We were putting up a tent," Haru told him.

The group continued on home, with Momiji tagging along and asking question and generally being a nuisance. Tohru was relieved when they got back with no incidents, even if Uo wasn't.

…

"There's nothing in these stupid books!" Motoko huffed, thoroughly angry. She wasn't adept at researching in a one thousand year book with half the words illegible. But give her a computer with internet access…

"Now, now." Mai attempted to calm her down, but it wasn't really working, since Mai wasn't paying attention to Motoko, but to the book she was reading, which she was finding fascinating.

"That's it! I'm posting a message on my group board." She got up and went to the computer in the room Hatori had said was Shigure's office. He owned the house, but was conspicuously absent.

She booted up the computer, but when the log-in asked for a password she drew a blank. _What did Hatori say it was?_ She tried to think. Last time she didn't even get on to the computer because of Ayame. Hatori had told her the password, nevertheless.

Looking around, she wondered why Hatori knew Shigure's password, when her eyes lighted upon a picture. _Ahhh…that was it._

Satisfied, she put the password in. It didn't log. Frowning, she tried a different variation of it, in lower case. It didn't work. She tried two more times before the fifth one finally logged in.

She immediately blanched when she saw the background. _How can Hatori be _friends_ with him?_

She quickly clicked on the internet icon. Strangely, it brought up Shigure's e-mail inbox.

_That doesn't normally happen._

Motoko meant to exit the inbox and continue to her message board when one of the e-mails caught her eye. It was labeled: Your time is up, Shigure. Now you're going to die.

_Huh? Most people don't get e-mails like that._

Motoko scrolled down the _long_ list of e-mails, all of which, she noticed were from someone called Mit-chan. _All_ of them had labels containing something about Shigure's painful demise, and reminders about how his next 500-800 pages were due.

_Normal people don't write these kinds of emails. Normal people don't usually _receive_ these kinds of emails._

Curious, Motoko clicked on the latest email, which had been received the day before. She skimmed down the lengthy email, which was full of threats to Shigure's health, reminders about the next 500 pages of his novel, and back again to Shigure's death.

Motoko raised her eye-brows. This Mit-chan either had quite an imagination, or was crazy. It was possible that she was both.

Since she didn't feel very guilty about digging through Shigure's stuff, she looked through a few more emails, and seeing that they were filled with much of the same, moved on to his document folders. She was really curious now as to what a person like Shigure would have saved in it.

Summer-colored Sigh_! I remember seeing a book titled that at a bookstore. It was one of those trashy romance novels. Did Shigure write it?_

She opened one of the files, "Cherry Blossom Passion." It probably should have clued her in. After skimming through a few pages, Motoko sat back, angry.

_What kind of person _writes_ this junk? I don't think I want to meet him._

Motoko went back through the Open Documents window and sighed as she looked at the titles for the documents.

"Jeez, this guy must be some kind of pervert or something," she muttered to herself.

She exited the word processor and turned her attention back to the internet. She went to her message board, looked at the various postings that people had put up, and began writing her question about vengeance demons and replying to other postings.

When she had posted her message she pulled up another window and started visiting several demon databases, occasionally checking to see if anyone had answered her question.

After a couple hours or so she finally made some progress. Not only had someone finally posted an answer to her question, but she had found a quick blurb about vengeance demon in a demon dictionary, which was more then she had found when she had been looking in the books. She read the definition in the dictionary first.

"Vengeance Demon: n. powerful female demons who were originally human. They grant wishes to certain people, depending on what they are the patron of. Has ability to teleport. Ex: A vengeance demon may grant the wishes of scorned women. Also see 'Justice Demon.'"

_Well, that's useful._

Motoko turned her attention to the message. It was short and to the point, stating that there had been underground reports of a new vengeance demon surfacing in Japan in recent weeks. This demon was allegedly the patron of insanity, which matched up with what little information Motoko had assembled thus far.

She printed the reply and the dictionary entry, and was about to log off of the desktop when she decided to go through Shigure's files one final time. Motoko opened the file entitled "Soul Devastating Decisions." She figured it might be a piece of autobiographical writing, but was proved wrong when she read the first paragraph.

_A romance novel? I…guess I can give this story a chance. _ She thought, and continued reading.

_Poor Hiroko, to be presented with such a choice; Samuru, beautiful, who surpasses all men in ability; Kazuo, who is handsome, righteous, and helps all. Sort of like me, there's Yuki, the Prince, who will never love me as I love him, and who I know virtually nothing about and… Hatori, who I know more about than Yuki, but will also never love me. He seems so cold, distant, and gloomy, and has the whole 'ex-girlfriend' thing going on._

Sighing dramatically Motoko carried on reading until she was at the last chapter.

_With his raven hair gleaming in the light of the blood red setting sun, Kazuo radiantly stood on the veranda, staring at the ocean stretching out beyond him. His sapphire eyes glinted with fury when he spotted Samuru striding towards him from the mansion with Hiroko following. _

"_What are you doing out here, Samuru? You should be inside, away from the wrath I have yet to unleash upon you."_

_Samuru's silver hair was caught in a cool ocean breeze and floated about his face like a radiant nimbus. He defiantly met Kazuo's azure gaze with his eyes of amethyst. "Your ire is irrelevant, Kazuo. Hiroko will indubitably choose me over someone of your caliber. The wind blows for me; the sun shines for me; the heavens sing my praises by night and by day. You haven't a chance."_

"_You are mistaken, young one. I may not be endowed with the beauty the goddesses bestowed upon you, but I, with my enchanted Sword of Truth, shall eradicate all malevolence from our realm. Hiroko will choose me."_

_Hiroko was torn asunder with sorrow at the decision she had to make, like a hummingbird presented with two flowers, each filled with the succulent nectar of life. _

Motoko eye's widened. _Oh, how tragic!_ Motoko read on.

"_No, it is _you_ who are mistaken, for I, too, carry a magical sword: the Sword of Deceit! With it, I shall rid the realm of _you_."_

_Kazuo's eyes narrowed. "Like a tiger of India, I shall evade your every attempt, with stealth and agility you will never be privy to." He moved closer to Samuru, and Hiroko could see that Kazuo towered over the other man. "I am the healer of my clan, and that alone has granted me the knowledge of human physiology. With it, I swear upon the Sword of Truth that I shall strike you in both patella, your clavicle, and, finally, cut out your pancreas and sew it into your small intestine."_

_Samuru glared maliciously. "With my splendor, I shall steal Hiroko's heart, make passionate love to her, and she shall bear my child, who will be the celestial ruler of all the land!"_

"_Nay! You will not use her in such a way!"_

"_I love her like a small rodent cares for the cache of seeds that will sustain him throughout the frigid winter! You merely wish to be the sire of the Hiroko's divine child!"_

Motoko realized how extraordinarily familiar this story was. _Hiroko could be me! Kazuo would be Hatori! And that would mean that Samuru is Yuki! _

Motoko went back through the story and change all the names to their real life contemporaries. She continued reading the story changing names as she went.

_Hatori grabbed Motoko's wrist and pulled her against him. "I love her like the seahorse loves the plankton of the briny sea, Yuki! Evil such as you cannot _know_ love!" _

"_Do not touch her, for she is pure! She must choose now, for the time of the divine child's conception draws near. Who shall be the one, Motoko? Who will you choose?"_

_Motoko gasped. "I know not. Yuki, your beauty is unparalleled, as is your grace, nobility, and charm, and Hatori is tall, dark, handsome, brooding, and righteous. To choose would be to die!"_

_Shigure must be a gifted writer, to be able to write such heartrending stories! _Motoko thought about the story more and how it related to her life and came to the decision that whoever Hiroko chose would be the man she chose, Hatori or Yuki.

Motoko eagerly looked for the ending that would tell her who to choose and found, to her great disappointment, that Shigure had not yet finished the story. _This cannot be! How can I choose if he has not finished? I'll _make_ him write the last hundred pages._

To make sure Shigure wouldn't find out she had gone through his private, albeit trashy, files, she used the writing program's replace function to return the names to normal, though she wished she didn't have to.

She smiled at her decision, retrieved the pages she had printed, and discovered Mai fast asleep, using her book as a pillow.

"Oh, Mai. Don't you know that that's a terribly uncomfortable way to sleep? You'll get a crick in your neck." Sighing, Motoko moved Mai so she wouldn't be sore when she woke up. "Sweet dreams."

Motoko walked down to the dining room to find it empty and the table missing. Frowning as she looked around she tried to think of where everyone could be. She moved on to the kitchen, and smiled when she saw Hana, Hatori, and Yuki sitting around the table and eating. Motoko caught her breath as she watched Hatori and Yuki move.

_They're both so beautiful and graceful. How can I be expected to choose between them? It's so unfair!_

Hatori looked up, noticed Motoko and nodded his acknowledgment of her presence. "Hello, Motoko, have you found anything?"

"Oh! Um… um… Yes! I have. Take a look at this!" Smiling triumphantly she laid the two papers on the table.

"Patron of Insanity? Hmm… I know one woman who could use a wish from her," Hatori said thoughtfully.

"Really? Who's that?"

"Mit-chan, Shigure's editor."

…_OHHH! _

"Really? How interesting. By the way, when is Shigure due back?"

"Why are you asking?"

"Oh, no reason really. It just seems like he's been gone an awfully long time."

"Yes. He's been gone longer than usual, but he'll be fine. Why don't you join us while we wait for everyone else to arrive? You and Mai have been working half the night."

"Okay!" Motoko sat down in the empty space between Hana and Hatori.

They didn't have to wait very long, and soon Tohru and the others came back…with Momiji in tow.

"Why isn't anyone telling me anything? It's so unfair! Oh, hey there! What's your name?" Momiji asked Motoko with a grin.

"Motoko. What's yours?"

"His name is Momiji and he's an annoying little brat!" Kyo griped as he walked to the fridge to scavenge what was left in there.

"Kyo's being mean again!" Momiji whined, and then ran out of the room.

"Every single damn time!" Kyo growled.

Hatori cleared his throat. "What exactly is Momiji doing here?"

"He followed us and we found him in the cemetery when we were…putting up tents. We brought him back here for you to deal with," Haru answered.

Hatori gave a long-suffering sigh. "I see. What exactly do you want me to do about it?"

" I dunno. Tell him some lie that he'll believe?" Kyo suggested helpfully.

"Wouldn't Tohru be a better choice?"

"Probably, but— oh! Look at the time! We should get going if we want to make it to the office building to check out demonic presences!" Uo jumped in, and then grabbed Tohru's hand, turned around and headed back towards the door. Haru, Rin, and Kyo started to follow.

"Don't you want to know about vengeance demons and what we've uncovered? It would be wise to know in case you come across her." Hana's calm voice stopped them short.

"That's smart. What've you got?" Uo asked, curious.

Hana slid the papers towards the office building-bound group, who then crowded next to the table to read them, the male Zodiac members avoiding contact with the non-Zodiac females.

After a few minutes they had all finished and ready to get going again.

"We're going to be gone for awhile, so have fun with Momiji," Rin said as they started towards the door once again.

"Wait." Hana tilted her head to where she could sense Momiji's waves. "I think I'll go with you."

"That's great! The more the merrier!" Uo cried as she led Hana away.

The remaining three looked at each other and sighed as Momiji bounded into the room again.

"This is going to be a long night," Yuki said. The other two nodded.

…

The six stood in the lobby of Tohru's building.

"It's pretty big. How are we going to search this place? What do we do when we find this demon thingy?" Uo asked.

"Mai and Motoko told me that beheading it would work just fine," Tohru said.

"And _what_ exactly are we going to behead it with?" Kyo inquired. The other five looked at their weapons and noticed a trend in the definite lack of beheading material.

"I'm guessing we probably should've planned this out better," Uo commented, eliciting nods, shrugs, and noncommittal grunts from her comrades. "No matter! We can always improvise with what we've got."

"How are we going to improvise with stakes, crosses, garlic, and holy water?" Kyo asked. "Next time we go patrolling we're bringing an ax or sword or something in case this happens again."

Tohru had been staring into space while this conversation had been going on. She then snapped out of it and smiled at them. "I just remembered! Mai said something about really bad smelling stuff might incapacitate the demon, but she wasn't too clear about it." Tohru frowned. "Do we _have_ really bad smelling stuff?"

Uo looked at the garlic Tohru was carrying, and smiled. "I think we're good to go."

They turned their attention back again to the lobby. Rin spoke up. "It might have been a good idea to bring Momiji along. He knows this place like the back of his hand."

Kyo offered his tactical expertise. "We could always split up."

"What!"

"Are you crazy?"

"Haven't you watched _any_ horror films?"

"Well, we could split up into two groups. It _will_ get the searching done faster." Tohru put forward, "And I don't think it was that bad of an idea."

The four glanced at each other for before teaming up. Hana, Uo, and Tohru grouped up without a word and Haru, Rin, and Kyo were left in the other group.

"Hey! That's not fair— a psychic, a Yankee, and a Slayer in one group. You have all those superpowers and stuff and we'll just be stuck with martial arts!" Kyo cried.

"Don't whine Kyo-Kyo. Now, how are we going to do this? We could take the top floors and work out way down and you guys can start here and work you're way up. How's that sound?" Uo was nearly jumping up and down with excitement.

The others nodded their agreement, split up Tohru's garlic, stole the walkie-talkies a security guard had so thoughtfully left behind the security desk, and started searching.

(End Chapter 9)

ULTRA SPECIAL NOTE: I'm going on vacation tomorrow to California to visit relatives for the next two weeks, so this will be the last update for that time. All reviews, questions, and the like will be left untouched and unread for that period. Sorry. . But I get to go on vacation! Yay!

And thanks all reviewers! You guys are the best. hugs


	10. Searching for Demons

Disclaimer: I have finally seen the light. I will never own Fruits Basket. Or Buffy.

Warning: There _is_ an OC in this chapter, and the next, and possibly the one after that. I put him in there mostly for fun and some slight plot development. I couldn't find a canon character to fill his shoes. Just thought you guys should know.

Chapter 10: Searching for Demons.

Uo, Hana, and Tohru had been searching the top floors for the past 20 minutes and had nothing to show for it, no sign that a demon had been there. Neither Hana nor Tohru had sensed anything at all. Uo was becoming frustrated.

"Come on! How hard can it be to find a demon? So what if this building has, like, 20 floors!"

"Tohru, did Matoko or Mai tell you how big this demon was?" Hana asked calmly.

"Oh! Um…let me think…they said it was about…our size!" Tohru said brightly.

"It could be hiding in the ventilation systems, or…or…it could be anywhere! How are we supposed to find it?" Uo growled in annoyance.

Hana looked into the closet they were standing in front of. "If I remember correctly, Uo, you were excited at the prospect and couldn't wait to get started. You also acted as if it would be an easy matter to find this demon."

"That's because I thought that it would just jump out and attack us! I didn't really think we would have to search for it!"

"Hey, guys, what if it went home?" Tohru asked.

"Go home? Why would it go home? I thought this _was_ its home."

"It would be a perfectly logical explanation if we can't find it, but remember, we still have quite a bit of space to cover before _we_ go home," Hana said as she looked through a nearby desk.

"Come on, Hana, we don't have time to look through other people's stuff. Why are you looking, anyway? There can't be anything good in there, right?" Uo asked.

"My pencils and pens have all disappeared. I am merely looking for a desk with pencils in abundance so I can…exchange… possessions," she answered.

"You're stealing? Okay, I'll help." Uo moved to the desk next to the one Hana was at. "Any particular type you're looking for?"

"Any will be fine, as long as it works." Hana moved on to an adjacent desk.

Tohru looked around nervously, "Um, I don't think we're supposed to be doing that. It's illegal, right?"

"Tohru, if we were taking something _other_ than pens and pencils, like a computer or a chair, it would be stealing, but pens and pencils were made to change hands." Uo started rummaging through another desk. "Why do none of these desks have pens or pencils! This is an office. You have to have something to write with if you want to work! There are no highlighters, no markers, no nothing that writes!"

"I am coming across the same problem, and I must admit, it perplexes me as to why there are no writing utensils. I had not thought that so many other people have the same problem with losing pens as I do," Hana replied as she went from drawer to drawer.

A few minutes passed as Hana and Uo continued to poke around the desks. Finally Uo sighed. "We're not going to find any pens here. We'll look through the next desks we find."

Hana nodded her agreement and the three moved to the next floor. Uo and Hana made a beeline towards the desks, now curious to see if _any_ of the desks had pencils. Tohru started looking around for any demons.

When Tohru was done she returned to where she had left Uo and Hana.

"It's the same thing here, too! Nothing that writes. I don't get it!" Uo cried.

"There's no demon, either, and no people staying late, which is strange because there's almost always someone who works late. I haven't seen any security guards, either. Have you?" Tohru asked.

"No, we have not. There is definitely something malevolent going on in this building," Hana replied.

"To the next floor we go! And there had better be some pencils there." Uo led the way to the stairs.

It was much the same on the next floor. There was nothing to write with.

"I just don't get it! What, does this demon have a fetish for writing tools?" Uo's curiosity had been ignited and nothing would stop her from uncovering the truth.

All three of them were so wrapped up that none of them noticed someone approaching them.

"Hey! You kids there! You the pranksters that have been stealing everything?" an unknown male voice shouted from directly behind them.

The three turned around to find a very angry security guard. He was short, standing a few inches taller than Tohru, but was thin and well muscled. His black hair was crew-cut, unlike the men that Tohru hung around with, and he appeared to be around the age of the Mabudachi Trio. He was currently frowning and fiercely glaring, but Tohru sensed that he was normally a nice person. Even if she weren't a Slayer, she probably wouldn't have felt particularly threatened.

"Uh…who are you?" Uo asked.

…

"This is as boring as hell. There's been nothing for the past half-hour!" Kyo yelled in annoyance.

"Kyo. Keep your voice down," Haru commanded.

Kyo sighed and started looking at the desks for amusement. After a few minutes he started seeing a strange trend.

"That's weird. There isn't anything to write with on the desk, and _no_ office building has this many people who don't leave their junk lying around…" Kyo started digging through the desks. "There isn't anything to write with in here! That's just weird."

Kyo stopped looking at the desks and ran to catch up with Haru and Rin. "So, I wonder if there's going to be anything tonight, or if this is just going to be a waste of our time."

"Hey! The computer there is logged on! Come on." Rin lunged at her one hope of sanity. "Oh, thank God! There's internet connection that doesn't need a password!"

Haru and Kyo sighed in relief and jogged over to join her.

…

"I'm the security guard! Now, tell me what you're doing here," the angry security guard asked them.

Hana replied. "We are searching for a paralyzing demon that's been killing people in this building. Have you seen it?"

Uo flinched at the lack of tact.

The guard looked at them strangely. "I should be more worried about your mental health then I am right now. If you want to find "demons" go to a club, or a graveyard."

Uo stared in shock at him, then noticeably brightened . "Clubs…full of demons? Cool! That would be great demon hunting grounds." Her eyes widened, then narrowed, as she seemed to realize something, muttering, "That explains last year."

"Yes…a club would be far more enjoyable to this now needless excursion into a demon's nest," Hana deadpanned.

"Huh?" Tohru and Uo asked.

"Wait…are you saying he's the demon?" Uo pointed at the man.

"To a point. I have analyzed his electro waves, and have realized that it does not correspond with a human or the Sohma's, mostly."

Something flickered over the guards face.

"Finally!" Uo exclaimed, and got into an offensive position, while Tohru asked Hana, "Mostly? What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, that while he is demon, partly, really, he is not the one we are looking for."

"Ah man." Uo groaned. "This is not a good night."

Hana continued speaking, "And by reading his waves during this meeting, and sensing that he knew what we were talking about at the beginning, and from other subsequent emotions, I have also deduced that he has killed the demon."

The guard looked stunned.

"You can do that?" Tohru asked Hana.

"OH, COME ON!" Uo raged, "That is SO ANTICLIMATIC! This has to be the MOST ANTICLIMATIC night of my LIFE! We wasted a DAY on this, and THEN it turns out that the security guards, who are usually incompetent and ALWAYS killed at the beginning of a movie, book, or TV show to show that something EVIL lurks in the building, ACTUALLY defeated and KILLED the demon!"

The guard looked scared. "It was asleep?" he offered.

"Uo! Calm down! This is good for us! We don't have to spend any longer here looking for it!" Tohru offered.

"But I wanted to kill it!"

"Unlikely that you could, considering that you are ill equipped to deal with it anyways."

They all glared at him. He gulped.

"Uh… what was your interest, anyways? Please tell me you're not another rag-tag group of demon slayers living in the down-trodden, oppressed section of town that's ruled by demons."

They all stared at him. He swallowed.

"Not…really." Tohru answered.

"Because she's a Slayer." Hana pointed to Tohru.

"Um…Hana, do you think it's smart to tell him that?" Tohru whispered to her.

"Really? A Slayer? That's _much_ better. You were more likely to win," he said.

"Er…I'm still a little confused. Are you human, or demon?" Uo demanded.

"Half-demon." They all answered.

"Oh."

The man smiled a little at Tohru, evidently afraid that Slayers were allowed to kill half-demons, "Quarter-demon, really, or whatever's between quarter and half. Never really bothered to find out, and it's much more easier just to say half and not correct people, and makes me seem like I'm stronger then I am."

Tohru smiled back. The man looked relieved.

"Whatever, and I still am a little confused about something," Uo said. "Security Guard Man, _what is up with the missing pencils and pens!_ It's been bugging me _so_ much!_"_

Now that he knew the reasons for the teens to be in the building, his face relaxed into a much more natural expression, an open-faced one ideal for putting people at ease. He launched into a rather long answer, probably for the benefit of the Slayer.

"I'm not quite sure. A few weeks ago they all started disappearing. I've tried to catch the culprit, but I can't. I'm positive it's a demon that's doing this, because the office stinks of it after the writing stuff goes missing. I can't imagine what a demon would want with it. It's gotten so bad that pencils are worth more than gold here, and anything that's brought in has to go home at night or get stolen. Employees have tried using the computers for everything, like notes and whatnot, but now we have a paper shortage. I wonder if you can help me," he pondered aloud as he sat down in a nearby chair.

"Of course we will! But what do you want us to do?" Tohru answered.

He was about to answer when he saw the walkie-talkie Tohru was carrying. "So that's where those went to! I put 'em on my desk, left the room, and came back to see that they were gone!" He noticed that there was only one. "Are there more of you here, then?"

"Yeah, you can't miss 'em," Uo commented. "They're loud and probably playing on a computer or something."

"I see. By the way, what are your names?" he asked.

"I'm Tohru! That's Uo and she's Hana."

"I'm Hisoka." Hisoka got up and headed towards the elevator. "Come on, we're going to find your friends."

The three followed him and got onto the elevator.

"So. You said you took care of the paralyzing demon?" Tohru directed the question to Hisoka.

"Yeah, I beheaded it," he answered.

"Half-demon, you said?" Uo asked. "So, do you have, like, special powers or a demon form or something?"

"I don't really have special powers and…I don't really like to talk about my demon form… you're really not bothered that I'm half-demon?"

"Why would we? I mean, we're not bothered by full demons or full humans, so why would someone who is half be bothersome?" Tohru inquired curiously.

Hisoka looked at them strangely, something that he was a master at, and sort of smiled when the elevator doors opened and they found themselves standing on the ground floor.

"Follow me," he instructed, and led them to the far room labeled Security. He unlocked and opened the door and followed them in. He went straight towards the security monitors on the far end of the room, sat in the chair with a sigh, picked up the coffee cup that was on the console, waved the girls over, and started looking at the TV's that showed the entire building.

"Where would they be, approximately?" he asked as he searched for people who shouldn't be in the building.

"Somewhere on the bottom floors." Hana answered. "I have been wondering— where are the other security guards? A building this big should have quite a few."

"Yeah, and why couldn't we have just used the walkie-talkies to ask Kyo where they are?" Uo questioned.

"Because those walkie-talkies don't work." Hisoka noticed their looks. "You mean you split up in a demon infested building using walkie-talkies and you didn't even check to see if they worked? I meant to put new batteries in them, but some people went and took them before I got the chance." Hisoka chuckled and shook his head.

"What about the other guards?" Uo prompted.

"Yeah, about them, there used to be nine other guards, but the demon went after us first. We're down five guards permanently and three more are in the hospital, paralyzed. The doctors say that they'll be fine, once the toxin finishes filtering through their bodies. That leaves me and that guy." Hisoka pointed to one of the screens and the others saw a young man walking down a hallway. "Management is working on hiring more guards."

Uo looked somewhat satisfied at that. It helped make her rant look less silly. Of course she felt sorry for the dead guards, but really! The security guards were supposed to be food fodder, _not_ competent people who could take care of the problem without the heroes. Otherwise, what was the point of having a Slayer?

"Hey! I know that him! I talk to him every other night when I'm cleaning." Tohru cried.

Hisoka's eyes widened in surprise. "You work here? I didn't think that a Slayer would work here, but this _is_ a Sohma Building, and the supernatural are attracted to anything Sohma like demons to a Hell-mouth." He turned his attention back to the monitors.

"Why are we trying to find the others?"

"Because this building is dangerous at night, and the more heads working on this problem the better…besides, it's my job to keep kids like you out of here at night, and I wouldn't be doing a very good job if I let them wander around."

There was some silence until Tohru thought of something. "Do you know anything about vengeance demons?"

"Vengeance demons are bad news if you're in their way. Actually, they're always bad news. Very, very dangerous, and most of them have attitudes to boot. Why, exactly, do you ask?"

"Because there is a vengeance demon around here, patron of…insanity? Was it? And she has some kind of grudge against us. She kidnapped one of our friends."

"There's a new vengeance demon around? That's awful news. I wonder why I didn't know that…Ah! There they are! Floor 3, North Hallway." He pointed again to another screen.

"Yep. That's them, and guess what! They're goofing off. A demon could walk right up to them and kill them and they probably wouldn't notice until they were dead!" Uo was slightly angry with them.

"Let's go, then." The four got up and headed for the door.

…

Rin, Kyo, and Haru were currently engaged in a chair race. Kyo was winning.

"Do you think the others are going to find us?" Rin asked as she cleared one of the obstacles they had created to come in second.

"Does it matter? They'll find us if they do," Kyo stated somewhat philosophically, starting on a victory lap in his chair.

"Hey, Kyo, I bet I can beat you to that vending machine," Haru challenged.

"You're on!"

With Rin cheering them on, Kyo and Haru started on a new race. 5 minutes later they were still tied and nearing the end.

"So, Kyo, when are you going to ask Tohru out on a date?" Rin asked as she watched.

"Shut up!" Kyo was blushing.

"You really should Kyo. You two would be perfect together."

"I agree. You should. You both like each other." Haru joined the conversation.

"I said shut up!" Kyo was about to say something further when—

"Good God! Is that your natural hair-color?" A voice directly behind Kyo and Haru stopped them mid-roll. They slowly swiveled their chairs to face the security man behind them.

"Oh…Hi. Where did you come from?" Kyo asked nervously.

The security guard seemed fascinated with their abnormal hair. "It's a great dye-job if it's not. Is it natural?"

"Yes."

"Uh-huh. And I suppose those eyes aren't contacts?"

"Uh…not to our knowledge. Why do you ask?"

The man smiled brilliantly. "Just wondering. Not everyday you come across someone with your coloring." He turned around. "I guess you should get going now."

Kyo and Haru craned their necks around the man and saw that he was flanked by Tohru, Hana, and Uo.

"What are you guys waiting for? Come on," Uo urged as she, Hana, and Tohru walked to the elevator. "By the way, this is Hisoka. He's half demon." The guard waved hello.

A confused Rin, Haru, and Kyo followed them.

Uo stopped, and turned to look at Hisoka. "Aren't you coming?"

"What? Why?" He looked alarmed.

"Because, since you're a half-demon, you'll have demon knowledge, and you've proved yourself a competent security guard, and we need another decent fighter in our rag-tag group of demon fighters, and this is how they usually get new cast members and characters in books and shows."

"You're a little obsessed with that, aren't you?" Hisoka asked critically. "I'm sorry that I have to decline, but I _have a job."_

Uo came forward and grabbed his arm and forcefully started pulling him towards the elevator.

"NOOOO!"

…

Motoko was roused from her slumber by the racket of a paper door slamming shut. She ignored it and tried to go back to sleep when voices, conversing loudly, awakened her further. Annoyed and still heavy-eyed, but unable to return to her nap, she lifted her head from the kitchen table, wiped at her mouth, and stood woozily.

"Hello there! Who is this fine woman sleeping at my table? Wait…Hatori! Why is the table in the kitchen?" A man's voice Motoko didn't recognize came from behind her.

She turned slowly, still thinking incoherent thoughts, and tried to blink the swimming dual images of a man into focus.

"Wh…who are you?" she asked groggily.

"I'm still confused as to why the table is in the kitchen. Oh! Sorry, I'm Shigure. Who are _you_?"

Motoko was bolted into a more awakened state. "Shigure, you say?" When the man nodded, Matoko grabbed his arm, pulled him into his study, and sat him down in front of the computer. "I'm Motoko, and you're going to finish _Soul-Devastating Decisions_."

"Liked my work, did you?" Shigure smiled as he turned to his computer, stopped, and turned back. "Are you related to Mit-chan by any chance? Did she hire you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Never met her in my life. By the way, is she really out to kill you?"

"Oh, no! That's just her way of showing she cares and that I had better finish my story." Shigure smiled at her. Motoko was a little disconcerted when he did that.

"Sure. Just get writing."

…

Hatori stared after the retreating forms of Motoko and Shigure until they got to the office door. Then he turned to Yuki, who was sitting beside him.

"Do you, by chance, have _any_ idea what that was about?" he asked Yuki.

"Not a clue, but at least with the curse we don't have to worry about Shigure trying anything."

"True, and I'm sure Motoko won't, either, since she's so infatuated with you."

Yuki caught something in his voice and turned to look at Hatori better. "Hatori, are you…jealous?"

"No. Of course not." Hatori took a gigantic swig of the water he was holding and walked out of the room to prevent the conversation from continuing.

A minute later Mai flounced into the kitchen, fully awake and aware, and smiled at Yuki. "Hi! Do you know where the scissors are? There's this puzzle in one of the books I'm researching and I need to cut out a heart to complete it."

"The scissors are in that cabinet over there, the one labeled 'S'. There're bins inside it. Um…do you know if you need to cut out a paper heart or…a real heart?"

Mai skipped to the said cabinet and opened it. "The book said to cut out a clean red heart. I think it means a heart cut out of red paper, those old books can be so hard to decipher…hey, is that sake?"

Yuki shook his head. "Mai, the book means to cut out a real heart. That book is probably centuries old, from before they even dyed paper red … did you say sake?" Yuki moved closer to the cabinet to see if it was true.

The kitchen door opened and someone walked in. Mai and Yuki looked around the open cabinet door to see who it was, Yuki just barely avoiding torso contact. Tohru was at the door, grinning.

"Hello! We're back, and we met someone at the building who killed the demon before we got there." She moved aside to allow entrance to the rest of her Slaughter Squad, as well as one unfamiliar man, who, Yuki assumed, was their demon slayer. He looked disgruntled being here.

"That's great, Miss Honda," Yuki said as he shut the cabinet, carefully attempting to shield the bottles of sake from view. He was unsuccessful.

"What are you doing with Shigure's sake?" Tohru asked, eyes wide with confusion.

Uo snickered. "Isn't it obvious? He's looking to get a little liquored up."

"I was not going to get 'liquored up.' I was merely helping Mai get some scissors."

As if on cue, Mai, who had opened the cabinet after Yuki shut it to continue to look for scissors, jerked her head back out of the cabinet, a triumphant grin on her face. "Scissors! I found the scissors."

Mai then turned to bounce out of the room and nearly ran into the demon slayer, who was looking at her quizzically. "Is that a _frog_ on your head?"

Mai nodded cheerfully, adjusted her frog hat, and made her exit. Yuki turned to Tohru. "Miss Honda, why is the sake in this cabinet?"

"I couldn't find any other place to put it, so that's where it ended up."

Hatori walked back into the kitchen, glass empty, after the Slaughter Squad had seated themselves around the table and Yuki started to shut the cabinet door again. Hatori appeared to be rather disconcerted.

"Yuki, why is Mai running with scissors? She nearly impaled me…is that sake?" Hatori leaned forward to see into the cabinet better.

"Yes, it's sake." Yuki sighed woefully as he opened the cabinet wider for Hatori.

Hatori pulled out a bottle and inspected it. "This seems to be a component of Shigure's alcohol hoard." He opened it, sniffed cautiously, and poured a little into his empty glass.

Before any of the group could comment, a wail of despair echoed through the house.

"That sounded like Shigure's editor. Is she here?" Kyo asked warily.

"No. That would be Motoko." Hatori looked up, brow knotted in worry. He looked like he was about to get up, when the sound of feet pounding down the hallway became audible.

"I'm going out!" Motoko screamed, and the Slaughter Squad could hear her stomp through the house and slam the door.

The group numbly stared in the direction of Motoko's dramatic exit. Seconds later, Shigure came downstairs. "You know, she's just not as fun as Mii-chan to play with. Perhaps I should go finish the chapter…Oh, there's my sake!"

The staring still hadn't abated. The demon slayer looked a little scared.

"Shigure…what did you do?" Hatori asked, clearly not amused with Shigure's antics.

…

"I just can't believe it!" Motoko steamed, as she walked…stormed…out to the path leading to a bar she knew. "All I asked was he write a couple chapters, _is that TOO MUCH TO ASK?_" she cried to the heavens.

"Ahh…forget it. He's never going to do it. Good thing I'm not his editor. She must be insane by now. Having to put up with that…_monster_, " she muttered.

"I think I'm just going to go to a bar and get drunk. Maybe when I wake up this will be all a dream." She paused. "But then I _still _won't know who I'm going to pick!"

She paced in circles for a few minutes before she finally made up her mind. "Oh, screw this! I'm going to go get some drinks!"

Motoko walked up to the bar ten minutes later, still not calmed down, and nodded to the barkeeper and gave her order. "Raspberry schnapps, no blood, entrails, or organs."

Since it was a demon bar the barkeeper didn't press her age and promptly served Motoko her drink, just as she had requested. She sipped at her beverage, choking every time she swallowed, but enjoying the buzz nonetheless.

A woman with short blond hair, dressed in a crisp business suit, sat down on the stool beside her.

"Guy trouble?" the woman asked casually. Motoko nodded absently and continued to nurse her drink. "That's too bad. Want to talk about it?"

Motoko shrugged and replied, "I'm extremely frustrated with an acquaintance at the moment. There's not much else to say."

"Let me guess—its Shigure, isn't it?"

Motoko spewed her drink back into the glass. "How the hell did you know that?"

"I followed you from his house."

"You were_ stalking_ me? Who _are_ you?"

"Mii, Shigure's editor. I wish he would die, painfully. Don't you?"

Motoko wasn't sure how she should answer such a question. If she agreed, the insane woman at her side might try to convince her to take part in some sort of fiendish scheme. If she disagreed, Mii was presumably capable of killing her. Neither outcome was desirable.

"I…don't exactly…_wish_…for him to die. It might be…nice…if he turned up dead, I guess, but I'm not really in the habit of wishing people to die."

Mii pouted. "Are you sure?" Motoko nodded and Mii continued, "But… you hate him terribly, right?"

"Beyond annoyed at him at the moment, yes. Why?"

"Well, don't you think it might be nice to…get back…at him?"

"…Yeah. It would be nice."

Mii turned her head away, so Motoko could barely see Mii's satisfied smirk. "Would you help me?"

"How?" Motoko asked, interested, before she could stop herself.

"I've been slowly tormenting the family and friends around him, to get revenge, but that doesn't seem to be getting through to him very well. But with _you_ as my inside link and helper, then Shigure will get the divine justice he deserves!"

Strangely, in Motoko's alcohol and Shigure-hating induced haze, she didn't really perceive this conversation as absurd, or a bit evil. Otherwise, she would be on her guard.

"Well, su—" _Sure, _she was about to say, when suddenly it struck her: _If Shigure is injured in any way, then my choice can never be made! _she thought in horror._ Shigure, I will put my hate for you aside, to protect you and your writing from this madwoman! I swear!_ Motoko abruptly stood up. _But you had better finish that book. _

"Never, monster! I will protect him until his writing is complete! I will stop your every move!" she declared, then stormed out of the bar, after throwing down a handful of change.

When she was outside, Motoko suddenly felt much tipsier and she stumbled against the building as the world spun crazily around her, "Heh heh, I'm thinking I had a little too much to drink."

She continued on, nearly falling with every step, and was glad that Shigure's house was close. She arrived laughing insanely at random things, such as the gigantic bag of pens and pencils that was perched on the edge of the walkway next to the door of Shigure's house.

"Will you look at that! Hahahahahahah—AHHH!" Motoko tripped as she tried to get into the house, and then crawled through the door.

She grinned stupidly at the sight of Shigure and Hatori throwing back gigantic gulps of sake.

"Hi, guys! What's up?" she asked in a voice that was normally reserved for conversation in crowded stadiums and sawmills.

Shigure's eyes narrowed. "Motoko, how much did you drink? You weren't gone very long."

She held up two fingers. "One glassh!" she slurred as she pulled herself over to the table and grabbed Shigure's bottle of sake. Shigure tried to pry it out of her fingers, but she clutched the bottle with an iron grip.

"Dear, if you're this smashed from one drink, I don't think you should have any more."

Hatori laughed. "Don't be such a hard-ass, 'Gure! Let her have shome." Apparently, Motoko noted with glee, Hatori was drunk, too.

"Something is amiss—there's no way she could get this wasted after one drink!"

Shigure's worries were ignored, however, as Motoko began to drain the bottle of sake.

…

The rest of the group was upstairs hiding from the now very scary and _very_ drunk Hatori and from the less drunk, but just as scary, Shigure. Now Motoko's drunken voice joined the other booming voices from below.

"Oh, that just sucks, now Motoko's with them, too! This just keeps getting better and better!" Kyo said angrily as he stood up from the card game the group was playing, "I'm going to my room!"

The three downstairs launched into a very out of tune and raucous song.

_AND WE FIND OURSSHELVES IN THE SHHAME OL' MESSHH_

_SSHINGING DRUNKEN LULLABIESHH!_

The drunken trio had apparently decided that they liked that part of the song and kept repeating it over and over. Hisoka jumped when Kyo's anguished yell came from his room. Tohru, Hisoka, Uo, and Yuki leaped up from Tohru's outrageously over-sized pink bed and ran towards Kyo's room.

They arrived to see a disbelieving Kyo staring into his room, looking at the pages of his books flapping around the room, "My books! My books! What kind of thing would do this!"

Kyo's books were ruined. All of them were pulled from their shelves and were ripped up and shredded beyond repair; it didn't look like any had been missed.

"Maybe some are okay? Maybe not all of them are destroyed?" Tohru said hopefully, but didn't really look like she believed herself.

The five started to look for survivors in silence, but hope for any was growing dim as they searched through the destroyed books. After they had gone through the room a couple of times they gave up and returned to Tohru's, where Hana and Mai were waiting for them. They had somewhere found cookies and milk, which they gave to the shell-shocked Kyo, who took them numbly.

Uo looked at the clock and her face showed obvious relief.

"Hey guys, I have work tomorrow, so I have to go. This was a blast, though. See ya!" Uo hugged Tohru and waved good-bye to the others.

Hisoka muttered something unpleasant under his breath about how she can leave for home freely and that he was forcibly removed from his very important job.

The Slaughter squad waved good-bye and continued concentrating on the game and tuning out the noise from downstairs, until Tohru finally noticed something.

"Where are Rin and Haru?"

The rest of the group shrugged, and turned their attention back to their game.

"Crazy eights!" Mai cried.

Hisoka looked at her, "I thought we were playing Gin Rummy."

"No, we were playing Hearts." Hana stated.

"Are you sure?" Tohru asked.

Everyone stared at their cards for a moment, and then set them down and combined them into one deck just as Uo burst into the room, "Hey guys! Guess what! I think the pens and stuff from the office are outside!"

Hisoka got up, hollered, "Where?" and followed Uo outside.

Hana glanced at the clock and then told the rest of the group, "I have to escort Megumi to a…football…practice."

"In the middle of the night?" Kyo whispered to Tohru, "I don't believe her."

Tohru didn't seem to hear what Kyo had said and smiled brilliantly at Hana, "Have fun! Good-bye!"

Hana rose from the bed to take her leave as Hisoka arrived again. "It's the stuff. I'm going to one of my contacts to see if he can use any left over scent to trace the demon, later!" he proclaimed, and ran out.

It was down to Tohru, Mai, Kyo, and Yuki…and Rin and Haru, wherever they were. The four sat in silence listening to the trio downstairs, "Hey guys, why did _Hatori_ get drunk, anyways?" Kyo asked.

"He's really stressed out, and he probably hasn't had anything alcoholic in years," Mai said. "Sometimes you just have to kick back and get really plastered."

"YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE REALLY FUNNY? WHAT IF MII ISH THE VENGEANCE DEMON!" Matoko's voice boomed from downstairs.

"THAT _WOULD_ BE FUNNY! HAHAHAHA!" Hatori replied.

"WHATSH A VENGEANCE DEMON?" Shigure asked.

"UH…I DON'T KNOW! HAHAHAHAH!"

Yuki and Kyo stared at each other in horror, and Yuki whispered, "It couldn't be!"

"What?" Mai questioned innocently.

"Mii _is_ the vengeance demon! It makes perfect sense!"

"AND SSHHE PUT A SHPELL ON ME, THATSH WHAT SSHE DID! WHY ELSH WOULD I BE SHO…SHO…sho…" A loud thunk followed this, presumably Motoko finally falling unconscious. Two other thunks followed, hopefully of Shigure and Hatori also passing out.

"Maybe that's why Hatori got drunk! Maybe Mii put some spell on both of them!" Kyo looked relieved at his reason for Hatori's intoxication.

Tohru was confused. "Why would Mii want to kidnap Yuki?".

"Because she wants to get back at Shigure! My kidnapping and the pens and pencils were probably her doing. Same with Kyo's books." Yuki exclaimed.

"I don't think she wants to 'get back at Shigure', she probably wants to kill him. That's what I would do if I was Mii, and an insane demon," Kyo added glumly.

"But why would she steal pens and pencils? And rip up Kyo's books? It doesn't make any sense." Tohru was still confused.

"Tohru, she's _insane_."

"Oh, okay."

After a short silence Mai piped up, "Do you think it's safe to go downstairs now?"

The four got up and stealthily padded their way to the stairs and, as quietly as they could, descended, and poked their heads around the door to the living room where, thankfully, the three drunks were passed out, snoring loudly into the carpet.

The group sighed simultaneously with relief.

"Do you think we should move them so they're more comfortable?" Tohru asked worriedly.

"No," was the instant response from Tohru's sober companions.

They walked to the kitchen where they found Rin and Haru eating what appeared to be cookies and donuts from a nearby bakery. Rin swallowed the rest of her donut and pushed a bag full of goodies towards the four at the door and beckoned them over.

Kyo was spluttering as he sat down, "When did you buy this!"

"About 20 minutes ago. We then took a quick detour through the graveyard and staked a few vamps," Haru replied calmly, and then gulped down some milk.

"We. Are. So. Dumb." Kyo stated, "We could have been outside doing something like that, but no, we had to stay and make sure those idiots in there didn't kill themselves!"

Kyo then took a big handful of cookies and began chomping on them as he glowered.

"So, Shigure's editor finally snapped. Can't say I'm surprised, the way Shigure tortured her, but the vengeance demon part, who knew she had it in her," Rin commented.

"How did you know that?" Tohru asked.

"We were here to hear Motoko blare the truth to the world. I hope they have some really bad hang-overs. I think they made me temporarily deaf. I didn't know that Hatori could yell so loud, not to mention even get drunk."

Rin and Haru then glanced conspiratorially at each other, and Haru spoke up again, "Tohru, Kyo, you should go to a demon bar or something and see if Mii approaches you. Then you could see if you can find out where she lairs so we can stop her, maybe even see if you can get her to grant a wish to lift a certain curse."

"Why do we want to stop Mii?" Mai asked around a big mouthful of donut.

Yuki sighed. "Because, Mai, she's a danger: she's kidnapped, stolen, vandalized, and is probably going to attempt the murder of someone we know."

Tohru had been thinking hard since Haru had spoken and now realized the flaw in Haru's plan. "But I'm not insane. Why would she grant a wish of mine?"

"We were hoping that since she's insane she won't notice that you are not, and we think she would grant it anyways if you could convince her that it would cause Shigure great pain and sorrow if she did. Now, off with you two. Go, go!" Haru waved them towards the door.

Kyo started complaining when Rin pulled him up off the ground and towards the door, "Why do we have go to a demon bar? And why just us? What if we get into trouble with demons since Tohru's a Slayer? Isn't there some spell or something we could cast to call Mii?"

"If there is we don't know it. Now. Go!" Rin pushed Kyo towards the door.

"Actually, I know the spell. It was in one of those books. It's that one I need the paper heart for." Mai said cheerily.

Everyone stopped and stared at Mai. "And you didn't say anything? Why?" Kyo asked harshly

"I didn't realize we needed it 'til now."

Kyo sighed. "Where's the spell?"

Mai bounced up, grabbed the last cookie, and turned towards the study. "This way!" she directed, and sashayed towards said room.

She returned a few minutes with the book, opened to the relevant page. The Slaughter Squad crowded around to look at it.

A few minutes later they had closed the book, expressions of disgust on their faces, and Kyo and Tohru headed for the door. "I think waiting for Mii would be a better course of action," Kyo called over his shoulder.

"What's wrong with the spell?" Mai asked.

…

The demon bar was empty but for a few Chaos demons. Cautiously, Kyo and Tohru sat in the booth farthest from them.

"So… how are you doing with math?" Kyo inquired after a moment of awkward silence.

"Okay. Yuki's been helping me with it, but I'm still not really sure I'll pass the test."

"You'll do fine."

Tohru watched the bubbles in her soda pop and fizz, and then said, "Do you think Mii is actually going to show up?"

"No. Rin and Haru set us up on a date."

She blushed crimson. "A… date? But—they said we were going to make a wish!"

"They lied, obviously. They've been really weird about this kind of stuff lately."

"Oh. This is our first real date, then?"

"I guess so. Sorry I didn't take you somewhere nicer than a crappy demon bar."

"Oh! No, this is fine! I like it here, really."

Kyo grinned. "I guess this _is_ sort of your element now."

Before Tohru could respond, the bar door opened and a girl with long, wavy black hair and a black cloak stormed in.

"Is that Hana?" Kyo asked incredulously.

Tohru turned and craned her head to see, "That _is_ Hana! I wonder what she's doing in a place like this? Hana! _Hana_!"

Hana appeared rather taken aback to see Tohru and Kyo there. She approached them slowly and, when she was within earshot, started talking. "Tohru. Kyo. What are you two doing here?"

"We're here to see if Mii will come." Kyo added hastily, "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Did you drop off Megumi without any trouble?" Tohru asked worriedly.

"…Yes…Yes, I did."

Kyo glared at Hana and cleared his throat. "The truth, please."

Hana sighed dramatically and sat down beside Tohru. "You see, my mother is a witch, and I have started…gathering…ingredients for her, now that I know about demons and such, and I need to…retrieve…some rare ingredients for her in…" Hana looked at the dirty, almost illegible clock hanging on the wall. "…7 minutes."

"Oh! You buy stuff for your mom's spells?" Tohru said.

"Yes."

"Why didn't you just say that in the first place!...How much does it cost?" Kyo asked curiously.

Hana stated the typical price, which elicited a gasp from Tohru. 

"That's a lot…hey, what about Megumi? Why did you say you had to drop him off if you were just going to come here?"

"Oh I just felt like saying that…so…how's your date going?"

Tohru choked on the soda she was drinking and Kyo started spluttering, "Wha…how…but..."

"Look at the time. I need to be going now, but I will see you later." Hana rose gracefully and walked towards a demon that had recently arrived.

Tohru and Kyo watched her talk and exchange something with the demon and walk out of the bar before saying anything.

"Hanajima sure is an…interesting girl." Kyo stated.

"Isn't she wonderful?" Tohru said after she had finished slurping the last of her drink.

"You could say that. I really don't think Mii is going to show up. Wanna go somewhere else?"

"Like where?"

Kyo shrugged, stood, and held out his hand to Tohru, and helped her up when she took it. It was reasonably warm outside, even though it was, according to the bar's clock, ten minutes before two in the morning.

"Good thing it's a three-day weekend, don't you think, Kyo?" Tohru asked as they walked towards the more decent part of town.

"Yeah."

"This place looks fun," Tohru said after a while.

It was a park, and a fairly good one at that, in a nice section of the town, surrounded by trees and houses with expensive cars parked in front of them. Kyo walked towards the swing and sat on it. Tohru sat in the one next to him.

They sat there in a comfortable silence, soon broken by some conversation. Tohru found it easy to relax by just talking to Kyo about normal things, like food and movies, as opposed to apocalypses and creatures of the night. Eventually they started to play around on the playground equipment, just having fun. They stopped, and sat together in silence to watch when the sun began to rise.

…

Motoko groaned. Her head HURT. She slowly came to full consciousness and instantly regretted it. Carefully opening her eyes, they were quickly blinded by the kitchen lights. She was laying face down, she realized after a moment of confusion. Her eyes still hurt, nonetheless. It was then she came aware of something warm underneath her.

Befuddled, she looked askance and saw that it was Hatori's sleeping body.

Motoko's scream of terror woke Hatori. He winced at the shrill noise and the light, and tried to sit up, but Motoko was pinning him to the floor.

Motoko was much too shocked to consider rolling off of the doctor, or apologizing. Instead, Hatori's eyes widened comically.

"How…how come I'm not a seahorse?" he asked, seemingly to the empty air.

"What?" Motoko stared at him. "Did we take any drugs last night?"

Hatori just looked back. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. Then, quite unexpectedly, his arms flew up around her, and she found herself in Hatori's embrace.

"Hatori?" she squeaked, worst hangover of her life forgotten. Hatori let her go, and looking at his face, she saw him frown. "How strange," he murmured.

"And my new desktop picture!" a singsong voice announced.

Both of them looked over and saw Shigure standing there, camera in hand, hair freshly washed, and seemingly completely unaffected by last night's drink-athon. He smiled widely.

"I already have some pictures I took earlier of you sleeping printed out and on my desktop, but I think this one takes the cake! Wait till the rest of the family sees it! The dragon curse seems to have been broken!"

Motoko was dumbfounded. "Huh?" she questioned.

"Pictures?" Hatori asked.

They looked at each other. "SHIGURE!"

(End Chapter 10)

(And Starting Now: Super Long AN That Could Be A Chapter On Its Own.)

So, I threw an OC in there to take care of the demon in a cheap way, but so what? I didn't want to take him out because, even though OC's generally degrade the story, I got a few cute jokes from him. So everything's ok, right? And I realized that there could have been some rather funny moments if they had found the demon and realized that the walkie talkies didn't work, and they didn't have the right demon slaying equipment. And I could have introduced him in a different way. Ah, well, perhaps it's best if I didn't, because then I would have the clichéd way of having Hisoka catch the battle on the security monitors, or be talking with one of the groups when the demon appeared and come to the rescue with a proper bladed weapon, either killing it himself, or having Tohru do. See? It's totally clichéd to do it that way. Kind of.

He also doesn't really have much plot point, but I really couldn't resist. He has a part later that I just think is just too funny to cut and it wouldn't work without him.

And in case you're wondering, Hisoka looks like an average Japanese man, and no 'special' demon marks. Perhaps that's why he was so fascinated with the Sohma's hair and eye color.

And now I suppose I have to classify Matoko/Hatori as an alternative paring, what with the latest manga volume and all. I'm kind of sad to do that, you know, but I wrote this story before volume 10 was translated into English.

Evilalternativeendingstorywriter- No, it's not D'Hoffryn (Anya's boss), and very good guess on who the demon was. Or was it a guess? I'm not sure… But cookies for you

And for _why_ Matoko would let a _story_, and one written by Shigure, choose whom she would try to start a relationship with… Well, partly because that's how her personality would react, and she's choosing between her obsession of many years, and the tragic, angsty doctor…wait… ¬¬ …okay, perhaps it isn't _that_ big of choice, but it also is plot development! And we all love that! .

And this is the longest chapter I've ever written. Yay! And the longest, I think, of the story. It starts off with rather short chapters, but consistently grows longer. I feel so proud of myself. But I think there are only a few chapters left, though.

Kyo and Tohru's first date! Aww…young love. So sweet and, unless I've totally missed out on something, innocent.

Oh, and I hate to say it, but there won't be another update for maybe a week, because Harry Potter came out and I need to read it. Since I'm feeling a little guilty I made an extra long chapter just for you guys. So…enjoy!


	11. She Who Hangs Out In Graveyards

Disclaimer: I think everyone knows what I'm going to say here. Neither Fruits Basket nor BtVS are mine, seeing as I am not Natsuki Takaya or Joss Whedon.

Warning: Spoiler about Akito in this chapter. It's not the one we discovered in Volume 11.

Chapter 11: She Who Hangs Out In Graveyards

Tohru and Kyo walked into Shigure's house at 5:00 AM to witness an event neither would ever cease to bring up anytime humiliating stories were being shared. Motoko was sitting atop Hatori, who was clutching her forearms tightly in an attempt to keep her from throttling Shigure. Shigure was happily snapping pictures of the two, oblivious to his audience.

Rin, Haru, Yuki, and Mai entered the kitchen from the door connecting it with the living room, each toting a small stack of papers.

"Shigure, did you see—" Yuki stopped when he noticed Motoko and Hatori. Motoko's face was, by now, scarlet with embarrassment.

Shigure waved the newcomers over to him. "Wait until you see the one's I just took! They're the best of the batch."

Tohru and Kyo joined them as they crowded around Shigure to watch his digital slideshow of Hatori and Motoko pictures. Motoko took the opportunity presented by Shigure's distraction to stagger out of the room. Hatori sat up.

"Hey! Hatori hugged Motoko, but he's still Hatori! What gives?" Kyo demanded.

Shigure chuckled. "I think our cousin has managed to become uncursed. Like I said, it's starting to break of its own accord."

Haru flipped through his pile of papers and extracted one before speaking. "When did you say that?"

"Not too long ago." Tohru craned her neck in order to get a better look at Haru's picture. She giggled when she saw that it was Motoko, passed out on top of Hatori.

Hatori had since gotten a hold of a glass of water and a couple of aspirin. "Someone make a pot of coffee." He swallowed the pills with a gulp of water prior to continuing. "I suppose that confiscating those photos won't prevent you from printing out more."

Shigure shook his head and snapped another picture.

Tohru left the room to make Hatori some coffee, and Shigure left to develop his pictures, as Hisoka ran into the house, and did a double-take when he saw Hatori.

"You look _awful_, but you probably deserve it." Hisoka turned to the others, "Guess what! I got a lead. There've been reports of a skanky vampire; matching the description you gave me of that vamp, Rika. There's more, too!"

"Oh no, not a _skanky_ vampire," Kyo muttered to the people around him. Rin snorted and they continued listening to Hisoka.

"This vampire has been investigating all of our haunts! ...You know, where we all hang out?" At their continued blank stares he sighed disparagingly. "School, demon bars we've been to, our houses, and so forth. I think she's trying to find out what we're up to for that vengeance demon."

"Mii. The vengeance demon is Mii, Shigure's editor. We're pretty sure she wants to kill Shigure," Kyo informed Hisoka.

Hatori spit out the water he was about to swallow. "When did you find that out?"

"From you and Motoko last night. You guys thought it would be hilarious if Mii was the vengeance demon… and then you passed out."

"Ah."

"Did you find out anything else?" Yuki asked Hisoka.

"I've got the locations of a few demon bars that this Mii's a patron of, places insane folk often go to, apparently, but they're the only places my contact could get from the psychic residue on the bag. Oh, that reminds me— that bag contained _all_ of the missing objects from the office. It'll be a pain to sort out but I'll probably get a huge bonus!" Hisoka grinned widely, and noticed the strange looks he was getting. "I don't get paid very well," he explained, and the group nodded with understanding.

Tohru walked in with a steaming cup of coffee for Hatori, who took it with a nod of thanks.

"That was quick. You only left a few minutes ago," Kyo said, confused.

"We started a pot some time ago," Mai told him. Tohru was filled in on the recent developments, and then asked to determine their plan of action.

"I think this is pretty straightforward—we split up, maybe into groups of two, and check out all of Mii's hangouts."

"But… what do we do after that?" Haru asked.

"Yeah! If we find her, do we kill her?" Kyo added, and then furrowed his brow. "How _do_ you kill a demon, anyway?"

Hatori shrugged as he took a sip of coffee.

"Motoko?" Tohru glanced around, but didn't see her among the group, since she had run out of the room earlier. "I'm going to go look for Motoko. Everyone stay put."

…

Tohru located Motoko hiding beneath Yuki's bed.

"Um... Motoko?" Tohru lifted the bed skirt and poked the warm, curled-up body. Motoko grunted. "Motoko, we need to know how to kill a vengeance demon."

"You destroy her source of power. Usually an amulet. Leave me alone."

"Motoko…what are you doing under there?" Tohru asked gently.

"Why did Shigure have to take those pictures? It's bad enough that he caused me to get so upset that I go get drunk, and end up passing out over Hatori."

"Shigure's…Shigure." Tohru sighed. "It doesn't help to encourage him. Just let it slide."

"And Hatori hugging me?"

"That's…something else."

"What was that about a curse and Hatori's part being broken?"

"That's…the something else. It's just a family curse."

"Oh…Why didn't he just say that? I mean…Hey! Is that why Yuki always wary of the Fan Club girls…and every other girl?"

"Yeah, the curse is triggered by hugging the opposite gender."

"That explains the rest of this family." Suddenly Motoko uncurled and rolled around to face Tohru. "Is it a Zodiac curse?"

"What?"

"Is it a Zodiac curse?"

"Yes…how did you know?"

"It was one I came across when I was studying Ancient Chinese Magic and Mythology back at the University last semester. It's one of the hardest curses to cast, since it requires so much hate, malice, and vengeance from the caster. Also because it has to trigger only 14 people in one specified family, one generation, and only one person at a time for one part of the curse. It'll last until something triggers the curse to start breaking of its own accord."

Tohru suddenly found it a bit hard to breathe. "Like what?"

"Whatever the caster decided. Every curse has to have something to break it, otherwise it won't work." Motoko suddenly smiled. "However…it does help me decide something." She rolled over again. "Stupid Shigure…"

"Motoko…don't you want to help destroy Mii?"

"Worst hang-over in the world happening here. Tell me how it went when you guys get back."

"Oh…okay. Do you want me to get you anything?"

"No…just punch Mii in the face for that intoxication spell she put on me."

With a soft affirmation, Tohru got up and went back downstairs, mind racing.

…

Tohru walked into the living room to find that Hana and Uo were back and that everyone was peeved with Hana, except for Uo, who was amused by Hatori's hang-over.

Kyo seemed to be the most annoyed. "Hana, why didn't you just tell us before?"

"Tohru, everyone seems to be mad at me, but I can't say why." Hana turned her attention to Tohru.

Kyo exploded, in a figurative sense. "Because while we were all out working our asses off trying to find Mii, you've known ever since your mom cast a spell! And only now do you come and tell us!"

"Your mom cast a spell for us? That's so sweet! Um, when did she cast it?"

"Right after she picked up that spell ingredient last night at the demon bar!"

"That wasn't so long ago! You shouldn't be mad at her for that!" Tohru said brightly.

"We could've finished off Mii by now," Kyo muttered.

"Oh! That reminds me; Motoko said that destroying her power source will stop her. It's usually an amulet."

Uo turned her attention to the conversation. "Now we know where she is and how to kill her! Let's crash her party and hack'n'slash our way to victory!" Uo brought out her iron pipe and smacked it up and down against her palm.

"Where is she?" Tohru asked.

"She lairs at the publishing firm's office."

"What?" the group cried in unison, with the exception of Hatsuharu, who was busily punching the buttons of his Gameboy and effectively ignoring the current status of affairs.

Hana nodded pertly in affirmation. "Indeed. Where did you suppose she would be? Hiding in a mystical fortress in the mountains, surrounded by demonic minions and a plethora of nonsensical traps? Don't be stupid. She's an urban demon."

"She could have been an _old-school_ demon," Kyo challenged.

"Silly Kyon-Kyon. You thought she would have some sort of super-cool castle, didn't you?" Uo punched him playfully in the arm.

"Does that mean she actually _lives_ at her office?" Rin asked.

Hana nodded again. "Why she doesn't simply live in her apartment has baffled me. Perhaps she believes that it will be harder to find her if she stays in a place few people will look for her."

Kyo snorted disbelievingly.

Hana continued, "None of you believed that she stayed at her office, did you? But maybe she just forgot to pay her rent, got kicked out of her room, and hasn't bothered to find a new apartment to live in."

"That means that she should be there if we go now, right?" Tohru asked.

"Correct."

"Then let's get going!" Uo cried.

The group— with the exception of Hatori, who was still dealing with his hang-over, Motoko who was still hiding under Yuki's bed, and Shigure, who was singing gleefully over his precious pictures and plotting ways to get them out to the whole family and make a pretty penny off them— armed themselves with implements of doom and headed off to the office building, intent on getting there before the office opened.

…

Shigure returned to the living room after the Slaughter Squad had been gone for a few minutes.

"Hatori, where did everyone go?" Shigure asked as he looked around the room.

"…They went to see Mii at her office, for some reason they weren't too clear about."

Shigure looked at his watch. "She should be there. For some reason Mit-chan's office opens several hours early on Sundays. It's something to do with the opening of the Monday morning stock market, if my memory serves correctly. Ah, I see you have coffee! Is there any left for your favorite person? Don't answer that— I'll see for myself."

Hatori stared in horror after Shigure's retreating form. He then looked down at his watch to do some frantic calculations.

"If Mii's office opens at about 8 or 9 in the morning normally, and it's about 5:30 now, and if it would take about an hour and a half or so usually to get there from here, then they should get there at about…7:00. This is very, very bad."

Hatori sluggishly rose to his feet and staggered as fast as he could upstairs to Yuki's room, where he figured Motoko was. His assumption was proven correct when he found her curled up beneath Yuki's bed.

"Motoko?" She groaned. "Motoko, something horrible is about to happen. We have to leave _right now_."

Hatori grabbed something that felt like her arm and pulled. She groaned again.

"Motoko, please. I'll give you a bottle of aspirin if you come out." His offer was met with silence. "I'll buy you coffee." She didn't reply. "I'll beat Shigure for you."

Motoko rolled out from under the bed and offered Hatori her hand, which he clasped and pulled her up so that she was standing.

"You'll still buy me coffee, right?" she asked groggily. Hatori emphatically reassured her that he would and dragged her out to his car.

Once she was leaning against the car, Motoko dragged herself into the passenger seat and painstakingly buckled her seat-belt. She winced when Hatori closed the car door on her side, even though he did it quietly.

"Why do we have to go? Where are we _going_?" She asked.

Hatori started the car and began driving towards their destination before answering.

"We're going to Mii's lair, which is actually her office building, because Tohru and the other's left a few minutes ago with the intent of getting there before the office opened and the employees arrived, but they didn't know that the office opens early on Sundays, which I just found out from Shigure. By the time they reach the building all the employees will probably be there to witness nine people armed to the teeth rush in with the intent of killing one of their employees. I'm sure that will go over well, don't you? We need to catch up with them and stop them."

They drove in silence for a few minutes until Motoko's hurting brain finally realized what was bugging her. "Why did you bring me along?"

"Because I'm not leaving you alone with Shigure…damn, where are they? We should have caught up with them by now!"

Even Motoko in her extreme hung-over state was impressed that Hatori swore, since he really didn't seem like the type to do so.

"May…maybe they took a shortcut or something, to keep hidden from sight since they have weapons."

"You're probably right." Hatori glanced at the watch on his wrist, "We're running out of time, and I have to get back to the Main House in a half-hour or Akito will get suspicious and start asking questions, and that would be very bad for Tohru and the others. I should have brought my cell phone."

"Who's Akit—AHHH! Are you sure you should be driving?" Motoko asked worriedly as they narrowly missed an oncoming car and swerved into some one's well kept yard.

"No, I shouldn't." Hatori backed up into the street again.

Motoko gasped excitedly, then winced in pain, but pointed anyways. "I think that's them!"

"Where?" Hatori looked around frantically.

"Wait…no, those are garden gnomes…scary."

Hatori sighed and continued driving. "How did you confuse a platoon of _garden gnomes_ with your peers?"

"One of them is carrying a little battle axe."

"Why would a garden gnome have an axe? It's not as if they go storming office buildings, unlike our inept group of warriors."

"Shut up and steer." Hatori did so for nearly ten minutes while they looked for a band of teenagers carrying an arsenal of weapons.

Motoko was the one who broke the silence. "So, your family's cursed?"

Hatori slammed the brake pedal with his foot, bringing the car to an abrupt stop. "How did you find out about that?" he demanded.

"Well, Shigure _did_ keep saying that you had been uncursed, and…hey, don't you think we should be having this conversation somewhere else? Listen to all the car horns honking." Car horns were indeed blasting away at full volume, and, in addition, there were a few individuals yelling curses at the car.

Hatori merely pulled over to the side. "Yet, I feel there's more," he stated.

"When Tohru came upstairs I asked her about Shigure's remark. She avoided the question, but eventually I put the pieces together. The Zodiac curse is a nasty one. I feel sorry for your family, but at least you've been uncursed!"

She smiled brightly at him, but then groaned and put her hand to her head, closing her eyes as she did so. Leaning back, she asked, "Well? I answered your question. Shouldn't we be driving…somewhere in the search of our young heroes?"

"It's too late for that. No matter how you look at it, too much time has elapsed. They are at the office building."

"That sucks for them." She giggled. "It almost makes me glad that Mii gave me this horrible hangover, so I'm not with them."

"Me too," Hatori said softly.

"Hmm." Motoko's eyes opened suddenly. "Didn't you have that Akito guy you have to go to?" Motoko frowned. "What for?"

"I'm the family doctor, and Akito is my main charge. He's the head of the family, you see." Hatori sighed. "I'm going to have to take you with me. There isn't enough time to drop you off at Shigure's house."

"Is…that bad?"

"If you meet Akito…you'll know." Hatori put the car in gear and pulled back into the traffic.

"…So…what did you want with Shigure last night?" Hatori asked after a few minutes of silent driving.

"Oh…" Motoko looked embarrassed. "I wanted him to finish writing something. But now I realize that it was foolish and stupid. After all, Fate seemed to have chosen for me."

"Chose what?"

"Nothing, really."

Hatori was not convinced, but said nothing of it. The rest of the ride was uneventful. Motoko fell asleep within a few minutes, which prompted Hatori to look her over whenever he reached a red light. He noticed that, among other things, Motoko had the tendency to mumble and laugh in her sleep, much like Tohru. He thought it was adorable, considering how staid and severe she normally behaved.

He smiled slightly, but sobered when he turned into the tree lined avenue leading to the Sohma Main House.

…

Tohru and Kyo led the group into the office lobby, where they were ignored by the receptionist. He was, fortuitously, arguing with someone on the phone and could not be interested by the well-armed teenagers walking past him to the elevators.

They stuffed themselves into the center elevator of three. "Fourth floor," Hana told Yuki, once she noticed his fingers hesitantly hovering over the elevator buttons. He pressed the button labeled "4" and Tohru felt the elevator rise. Not a word was spoken, even after the elevator chimed its arrival at their destination.

The doors slip open, revealing an enormous room filled with cubicles and the sounds of typing, subdued chatter, and electronics humming. The office was filled with employees, a few of whom had noticed the group's arrival. They stepped out of the elevator. Slowly, the chatter and typing stopped as the employees began peering over the tops of cubicles and around corners at them.

Within the space of a few seconds, panic had erupted. Tohru spotted several staff members frantically dialing phone numbers, and others hiding under desks. Still others had locked themselves in the copier room.

Kyo pulled Tohru roughly back into the elevator. "I think we'd better go."

…

The police station was cold and smelled like wet cigarette butts. Kyo, having lived with Shigure for nearly two years, was well-accustomed to the smell, but would have preferred a warmer environment.

The police had arrived at the scene faster than any of the group would have imagined possible. They had already been waiting, guns out, when the elevator reached the first floor. Tohru and the others had been presented with the options of either putting down their weapons or being filled with bullets, opted for the first, and were escorted down to the police station, where they were currently waiting for someone to bail them out.

"So this is what a jail is like. Not what I expected." Mai said, still cheerful despite the recent turn of events.

"What did you expect? A five-star hotel, with waiters and menus and everything?" Kyo replied, extremely aggravated with their situation.

Mai nodded cheerfully, "Uh-huh, like in that one American show."

"Why would a show have a prison like that! Are you sure you were watching what you thought you were watching?"

"It _was_ in English, so I might have mistranslated it…but I'm sure I didn't!"

While this debate continued, Yuki listened to the nervous wreck that was Tohru. "Yuki, what are we going to do! Hatori and the others don't know where we are…Oh no! We're going to have criminal records! What are we going to do?"

"Miss Honda, please calm down, I'm sure that we can call Hatori, and he can also erase the memories of the policemen and the workers at the office and destroy the evidence." To himself, Yuki muttered, "Of course, Hatori will be furious with us for getting arrested and the amount of work that he'll have to do."

"Hey, Hana, how much did the police guys say our bail was?" Uo asked, as she had been paying attention to the guns the police were carrying when that tidbit of information was shared.

"$500,000…each."

Uo seemed disbelieving of that. "But…but that's…over 4 million dollars! Who has that kind of money to throw around?"

Anything Hana was about to say was cut short as an ominous looking mist filled the prison and started swirling around for a few minutes. When it stopped, it coalesced into one being—Mii.

_Thunk…thunk…crash…ping!_ Noises filled the air as the police fell unconscious—at least, that's what the Slaughter Squad assumed.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, _nine_ little piggys all locked up, waiting for the big bad wolf." This statement was followed by several seconds of evil, insane laughter and cackling by Mii.

"Are any of you insane?" Mii asked professionally once she had calmed down, "I'm just asking. I wouldn't want to do anything bad to potential clients, you know."

Kyo raised Mai's hand up so Mii could see it, but Haru jabbed Kyo in the ribs so that he let her hand go.

"No one? Really? That's too bad. I'll just have to kill you all, then. Who wants to be first?"

The cellmates were silent. Mii frowned, displeased with her audience. "Why isn't anyone volunteering? C'mon, guys! It'll be fun!"

"Not really," Kyo ventured. "Not for us. We'll be dead."

"What's wrong with being dead?" Mii's frown deepened. "I hear it's a lot of fun."

"The dying part I think is the part that puts most people off it, but really, you don't want to kill us."

"I don't? Why don't I? I thought I did. Did you hear me right? No…no, I want to kill you, and I've come up with lots of fun ways to do it to get back at Shigure." Mii started laughing insanely again.

The whole group sighed with impatience and annoyance, with the exception of Tohru, who wasn't paying attention, as her attention was on Shigure.

Shigure had just arrived and was nudging the police bodies on the ground with his foot and shaking his head in confusion. Then he saw Mii, and slowly, after grabbing the policeman's baton that was lying next to him, he inched forward, raised it over her head, and knocked her unconscious.

"Mii, you were an awful editor. I never liked you, but threatening to kill nine innocents? That crosses the line," Shigure said heroically.

The Slaughter Squad looked on in stunned silence, until Kyo broke it. "Shigure, what are you doing here?"

"Really, Kyo, don't I get some thanks? I spent the last four hours scrounging up enough money and draining your back accounts to bail you out, come here, find Mit-chan threatening to kill you, knock her out for you, and I don't get any thanks? Ohh, what dreadful relatives I have!"

"We haven't been in here for four hours! You drained our bank acc—oohhfff."

Haru had punched Kyo to shut him up, as everyone else in the cell cried frantically to Shigure, "Her amulet! Smash her amulet!"

Shigure looked at the amulet around Mii's neck. "That is a very fine necklace. It would be a shame to destroy such a piece. Just think of how much time and effort went into it! And you would smash it into a million pieces! Oh, what inconsiderate people you are!"

Kyo growled in annoyance, "Just. Smash. The. Damn. Necklace!"

Shigure unlocked the chain on the amulet and held it up to his face, "This must have been very expensive. I know I don't pay her enough for her to afford it." Shigure gasped. "Mit-chan! Do you have other clients richer than me?"

Tohru tried now. "Shigure, we really need that amulet. Can you give it to us?" she asked sweetly.

Shigure clutched the necklace to his chest as Mii stirred and looked about to wake up. Tohru said desperately, "Please Shigure, it's really, really, _really_ important that we have that necklace, please Shigure."

Shigure looked like he was about to give in when Mii's eyes opened, and she morphed into nasty vengeance demon mode. "**Too late now.**"

Shigure saw this and his eyes widened, "Mii! You're a vengeance demon! I never would have guessed!" With that, Shigure shattered the amulet into a million pieces.

A bright burst of light filled the cell-blocks and when it was over an insane, human, Mii was laying on the ground, "This sucks! And I was just about to send you all to an alternate universe too!" Mii pouted for a second and then jumped up, "NO! I've got deadlines to meet! See you later!" Mii ran out of the prison.

Shigure stared open-mouth after her. "You…you just ignore me! How could you do this to me?" He wailed.

The jailed teens looked at Shigure. "'I never would have guessed?'" Kyo mimicked incredulously.

"You mean that even though you've pushed her to the edge of reason, you never guessed she might do something drastic in return?" Uo continued.

"Even though we kept asking you to smash the amulet?" Hisoka joined the rant.

"Well, no." Shigure just looked at them.

"Shigure…how did you know about demons and whatnot?" Tohru defused the rapidly growing riot-like atmosphere.

"Oh, that." He waved his hand dismissively. "I used to date vampires since the curse wouldn't affect me. Although…" He frowned. "Those relationships never seemed to work out. I always had to stake them."

A strangled cry escaped Kyo's throat.

"Oh, well." He smiled winningly. "Hatori and Motoko tried to come find you before you got to the office, but they couldn't. And since Hatori didn't drop Motoko off, I assume that he took her with him for Akito's checkup. Oh look! The guards are waking up! Let's get out of here, and then get Hatori to clean everything up after his appointment."

Tohru and the Sohmas stared, gape mouthed, in horror. Only one thought was on their minds.

_He took her with him to the Main House…and Akito! Kisa, Rin, and Kana have all suffered his wrath. What will Akito do to her?_

"Damn. I was hoping for a real fight with Mii," Uo said sadly.

…

Hatori gently shook Motoko. "Motoko… Motoko, wake up, we're here."

She simply pushed away his hand with a snarl. He got out of the car, walked around to the passenger side, opened the door, unbuckled her seat belt, and pulled her out. Motoko knelt in the gravel of the drive.

"Can I stay in the car?" she requested listlessly.

"Unfortunately, no. I don't leave anyone alone with my car, and if someone from the Main House walked by and saw you here the news would inevitably get back to Akito. Get up."

Motoko groaned in protest but rose to her feet anyway.

Hatori took Motoko's arm and steered her towards one of the structures in the huge complex, planning on hiding her in one of the houses and then going to Akito. It was a good plan until they went inside, and were assaulted by something.

Motoko didn't realize what it was until it started shrieking and waving something around. "What is this, Hatori! What have you done!"

Motoko identified their assailant as a person, perhaps a year or two older than herself. What worried Motoko more than her inability to determine whether this individual was male or female was the slip of paper the person was brandishing about like a flag in a hurricane. She immediately recognized it as one of the photos of herself and Hatori, captured in digital form mere hours ago by Shigure.

"Akito, please—" Hatori was cut off by another screech.

"How dare you bring that whore here, after running around with her behind my back! Her presence is filthy. _She's_ filthy!"

Motoko gasped. _Did Akito just say that, or was I imagining things? _"Where did you get that?" she asked.

Akito ignored her, in favor of screeching at Hatori, "Shigure e-mailed it to me! How dare you! I can't believe you would go fraternizing with some…some whore! What about the curse? Did you ever think of that? WELL?"

Motoko's bitchy high school persona, reserved for the protection of Yuki, came rushing back. "Listen, you gender-neutral freak! I don't care if you're the head of the family or God, but you have no good reason to yell at Hatori like that, and when someone addresses you, you talk to _them_, not someone else close by! Stop being such a bitch!"

Hatori and Akito stared, open-mouthed, at her. Hatori appeared to be worried, if not scared, and Akito had a dangerous gleam in…his/her…eyes.

"Perhaps I am God. That makes me more powerful then a little skank like you. I could crush you so easily it's not even worth my time." Akito's arm rose. "But I feel a little anger I need to release." His arm came swinging towards Motoko's face.

Motoko evaded it easily, even in her hung-over state. She turned her head upwards and sniffed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hatori standing there, looking dumbfounded. _Guess no one's ever stood up to Akito._

"Please, don't make me laugh. Anyone could have missed that. Don't make me get out my dagger. Besides, didn't you know that God's power is dependent of the people's faith and worship? If everyone in this 'lovely' family decided to stop paying attention to your orders, your power is gone. Haven't you realized that they are just humoring you? Ruling by power and fear will only go so far."

Akito stood there, clearly shocked at the defiance coming from the young, college aged girl in front of him. The picture slipped, forgotten, from Akito's hand to the ground. Kana and Tohru, or any of the other females, never did this before. All they did was sit on the ground and bow in respect. _Such boredom! Such…weakness. Sniveling little creatures. I doubt they could even fight. I can't believe Hatori actually fell in _love_ with Kana._

"My juunishi can't disobey my orders. It's the nature of our curse. One such as you, obsessed with beautiful things, is unable to see past that. Our curse is your source of pleasure! If—" Akito tried to get back on track, but Motoko interrupted him.

"Oh please. This family would be so much better off if a G'hai'ik demon devoured you, spit out your bones and laid its spawn on them."

"They don't attack females." Akito said smugly.

Akito's gender issue was resolved, but that's not the reason the two suddenly looked horrified. They raised shaking fingers at each other.

"YukiGirl."

"♀/Animal.God.13"

They whispered at each other.

"_What?"_ Hatori regained his ability to do something.

"She goes to our board, Hatori." Motoko said.

"How do you know?"

"We had a very long and private conversation on the properties and capabilities on G'hai'ik demons. Not very many people know about them, so we met and sort of combined our knowledge, and after many messages and hours of arguing, finally came up with something we agreed on about the demon." Akito explained. She sniffed. "You really _are_ a bitch, Motoko."

"I told you, only when I have to be. And you definitely fit the bill more so on bitchdom."

"You're right. Now come, Hatori, my checkup awaits. You can sit over there." Akito gestured over to a corner. Motoko sniffed haughtily and stalked over.

Aktio grabbed Hatori's arm and dragged the dazed man over to a paper door.

"What? How? What happened to the arguing?"

"Well, if you must know, I found her to be quite likeable…" Akito's voice slowly faded.

Hatori had to wonder what Motoko was like during that chat period to make Akito find her 'likeable'. Then Hatori suddenly connected something. "You go to our message board? You know about demons?" He asked her, disbelievingly.

"Of course. What kind of head would I be if I didn't know about most technicalities of the curse—like vampires don't affect it? Now—my checkup." She ordered imperiously.

…

Motoko had procured a magazine from…somewhere… and was reading it when, some twenty so or minutes later, the paper doors leading outside burst open.

Kyo, Yuki, Haru, Rin, Tohru, and Shigure rushed in. Hana, Uo, Mai, and Hisoka followed more sedately, not knowing what the hurry was all about.

They looked around in a panic.

"Hello," Motoko said. "What's the problem?"

The six looked stunned. Tohru hurried over. "Are you okay? Did Akito hurt you?" She asked worriedly.

Shigure made to follow, when his foot slipped on something. Bending down, he picked up the picture Akito had dropped. "How did Akito get this? I made sure that wouldn't happen," he murmured.

"Well, Akito said you e-mailed it to Akito's account." Motoko informed him.

"Really?" Shigure still gazed suspiciously at the picture, as if it would tell him how it got there.

The other Sohmas were staring at her. "What's the deal? I was sure you would need medical attention by now," Kyo told her.

"Kyo!" Yuki said sharply.

"Where is Hatori?" Haru asked, not seeing said doctor.

"Oh, he's with Akito for the checkup. They should be out anytime now." Motoko waved her hand dismissively.

True to her words, another paper door opened and Hatori and Akito stepped into the room.

Akito stared at Kyo and the non-Sohma members of the group. "You're not allowed in here," she stated, angrily.

"Yeah, well, we thought Motoko might be in danger," Kyo explained.

"Now, now," Tohru nervously said.

"That's still no reason to disobey the rules. _My _rules."

"Geez, what a bitch," Uo muttered to Hana.

"Yes," Hana agreed.

"Are you sure that's a girl?" Hisoka whispered to them. Uo and Hana shrugged.

"All right, everyone. Time to go." Hatori urged as he ushered Kyo, Rin, and Hatsuharu out the door. The rest followed in suit. Motoko paused at the door and told Akito that they would be in touch.

"So that was the infamous Akito. Not quite what I expected," Hisoka commented after they had left the complex, and then looked at his watch, "Oh, great, I've got to go, doctors appointment you see." He ran off towards said appointment.

Uo stared in disbelief. "That guy sure likes to run around a lot. Have you noticed?"

"I think it's wonderful," Mai said dreamily, also staring after him. "Does anyone know how old he is?"

"Uh, aren't you supposed to be dreamy-eyed after Yuki?" Uo asked, eliciting a feral grin from Mai. Uo grimaced and shifted so that Hana was between her and the former fan-girl.

Rin watched the exchange and smirked at Yuki. "It looks like your fan base is slowly disintegrating."

Haru glanced up at her from Hatori's cell phone, which he had hijacked in order to utilize its gaming functions. "I still love him."

"You don't count," Yuki mumbled. Amidst heckling from Kyo, they began the trek back to Shigure's.

"So what _did_ happen?" Shigure asked Motoko.

…

Time found Mai, Rin, Haru, and Motoko looking through books for no other reason then to pass the time, or, as Hatori put it, "To increase your knowledge on demons and how to kill them for benefit of the Slayer."

Mai was looking through a book with lots of pictures in it, her unnatural bounciness and cheerfulness strangely gone for once. Perhaps she was merely thinking of Hisoka, since she was just flipping through the pictures, glancing at them with a dreamy smile on her face.

The others were gaming on a cell phone, looking at her nails, or pretending to be reading.

They stayed like this until Tohru came in bearing a plate of cookies and other goodies. This grabbed everyone's attention and they stopped what they were doing and stared hungrily at the plate

"I thought you guys might be hungry after a hour of research, so I made you these." Tohru smiled brightly. "They're also for Motoko and Mai since they have to go back to the university tomorrow."

Motoko choked on the cookie she had snatched from the plate. She rose quickly from her seat and ran to the kitchen where there was a calendar. They heard her cursing as she realized that Tohru was right.

"No! I haven't even started on my assignment!" she wailed as she knocked her head against the fridge. Then, suddenly, she stopped and appeared back in the living room, "Mai," she said slowly, "You've done your homework, right?"

Mai nodded cheerily, "Of course! Procrastination is a number one sin!"

"Could I see your work please?"

"Nope, it's back in the dorm. Besides, cheating is also a sin."

Motoko seemed to wilt visibly; all thoughts of homework had rushed out of her head when she had learned of Yuki's horrid fate.

"But that doesn't mean I won't help you!"

Motoko brightened up immediately. "That's great. You know what, I think I'm going to go get the assignments and bring them back here so you can all help me!" Motoko rushed to get her coat and on her way out she shouted, "I'm going to borrow Shigure's car, okay?" and then she was gone.

A few minutes later they heard the engine of a car start up and pass the house.

"Shigure has a car?" Rin asked.

"Uh-huh, Ayame usually borrows it, so that's why we've never seen it before," Tohru answered brightly.

"Wait, does that mean Aya's here, if the car's here?" Haru asked, slightly surprised.

"Nuh-uh, Ayame is lending it to Yuki as a 'I'm sorry' thing. He also said he wasn't going to be needing it, since he's going to go search for Mine in someone else's car."

"Yuki's never going to forgive Ayame, but I guess Aya doesn't want to admit defeat." Rin said with a sigh, then she paused and mentally replayed what Tohru had just said, "Aya's going to go search for Mine? But, Mine's dead…"

"Yeah, but there's nothing we can really do about it," Haru said. "Eventually Aya will give up, and Yuki will have some time to simmer down and will be able to see him without gutting him on sight."

"But…don't you think it's kind of…wrong to let Aya go search for someone we all know is dead?"

There was a moment of silence as they reflected on that.

"I think that it will all play out right in the end. Who knows? Maybe he'll find someone else while he's searching," Mai said suddenly, in a rare minute of seriousness, then she brightened and smiled at Tohru, "So, Tohru, when's your next date with Kyo?"

Ayame was forgotten as Rin and Haru eagerly turned on Tohru, who blushed and grabbed a cookie to delay a response.

"It's not a date," was all she could come up with.

"So you _are_ going somewhere with Kyo." Rin grinned victoriously.

"Not really, we're just going to do a patrol together." Tohru blushed an even deeper red.

"A patrol of just you two," Haru said.

"There will be vampires!"

"So it _will_ be just you two alone together," Mai said happily.

"Which is generally considered a date," Rin told Tohru.

"No! It's nothing like that!" Tohru denied adamantly.

"Suuuuure," the three said together.

"It's not a date!" Tohru was getting a tad hysterical.

"Alright, fine. Have fun on your not-date." Rin shrugged and hid a smile.

"When is it?" Mai asked curiously.

"Tomorrow."

Haru grabbed the last snack on the plate, since they had been steadily munching on them during Tohru's interrogation. "Are there any more snacks left?" he asked.

Tohru jumped up. "Yes! I'll go get them. I should also get dinner started." She grabbed the plate and hurried out of the room. The three left smiled openly at her retreat.

"You know," Rin said contemplatively, "If Tohru hadn't been Called and this whole Slayer thing hadn't happened, Tohru and Kyo would probably still be obstinate that they didn't like each other."

"And Mit-chan probably would have killed someone." Haru added.

"Yeah."

…

That evening, Hatori called a gang meeting to brief the group. The first and most recent crisis seemed to have been resolved, except for one minor difficulty that Tohru brought up: "When are we going to deal with Rika?"

Her query was met with silence. Finally, Hatori sighed and said, "Next weekend."

(End Story)

Author's note: And that's that. The end. Thanks to everyone who stuck with this, despite the entirely-too-long hiatus from My baby has grown from infant to adolescence to, finally, young adult, thanks in no small part to all supporters.


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